How Labour should save the NHS
Among all its ideas, the most important is to go all-in for digital transformation
Reform UK, the party leading in Britain’s polls, has an uninspiring slogan: “Britain is broken”. The fact that even the populists’ bumper sticker carries none of the hope of “Make America Great Again” says a lot about Britons’ mood. Nothing illustrates the malaise more strikingly than the state of their beloved National Health Service (NHS). Hospitals are crumbling, sometimes literally. Waiting lists in England are 7.4m, twice as long as before the covid-19 pandemic. Public satisfaction has collapsed from 70% in 2010 to 21% in 2024. “Broken” was also how Wes Streeting, Labour’s health secretary, described the service on his first day in office last year.
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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Intensive care”
From the May 31st 2025 edition
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Workers and assets are on sale to the rest of the world for bargain-basement prices
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Their economic impact has been delayed but not averted
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It will change the online economy and the evolution of artificial intelligence