Integrated care systems should be supported to deliver their plans as financial challenges are tackled
The NHS in England faces an extremely challenging winter and the prospect of very low growth in its budget thereafter. The Chancellor’s autumn statement gave priority to cutting some taxes, albeit with the overall tax burden set to reach record levels. It also outlined public spending plans so tight they were described by one think tank as “implausible.”1
The government has rejected a request from NHS England for additional funds in the current financial year to cover the costs of industrial action. It has also been adamant that the NHS and other public services should redouble efforts to increase productivity. In response, NHS England has reiterated the importance of the NHS achieving financial balance this year and reprioritized national budgets to release some funds to help deliver this. It has also acknowledged the need to work towards a limited number of targets and accep
Nye-bevan
Chris-ham
University-of-birmingham
Labour-party
Transformation-fund
Care-act
Social-care-secretary
Victoria-atkins
Flaws in decision making and governance resulted in a chaotic response
The covid-19 inquiry is currently focusing on core UK decision making and governance. Recent witnesses have described how decision making was centred on Boris Johnson as prime minister who was slow to understand the significance of covid-19, dismissive of its likely impact, and largely absent from discussion of its implications in the first weeks of 2020. Johnson’s vacillating stance on how best to respond to covid-19 was a source of immense frustration for the advisers and civil servants working with him and had measurable consequences for the public’s health.1 The civil service through the Cabinet Office and Department of Health and Social Care was also ill-prepared for the biggest crisis facing the British state in decades.
So far so familiar in validating the findings of inquiries by parliamentary committees and accounts by scientists and journalists who have reported on these issues.234 The picture of hig
United-kingdom
Whitehall
Orkney-islands
London
City-of
British
Britain
Patrick-vallance
Emily-lawson
Chris-whitty
Chris-ham
Boris-johnson
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