Keir Starmer has said the NHS will get “no more money without reform” warning that it will either “reform or die”.
In a speech today (September 12) in response to the Darzi report which examined the state of the NHS, Starmer blamed the Tories for “breaking” the healthcare system.
Following the speech, employee benefits provider, Unum, said it could lead to some employers considering group protection and products.
The Prime Minister said: “As everybody in the country knows, the last government broke the NHS. But until this morning, we didn’t know the full scale of the damage, which is laid bare in the report.
“Even Lord Darzi, with all his years of experience, is shocked by what he discovered. It is unforgivable. And people have every right to be angry."
According to the Starmer, the Darzi report showed the NHS was already on its knees before the pandemic had begun as he called the 2010s a “lost decade” for the service.
“Getting people back to health and work would not only reduce the costs on the NHS. It would help drive economic growth - and fund public services," said Starmer
“The NHS may be broken, but it’s not beaten. As the report says, the NHS may be in a critical condition but its vital signs are strong."
The Prime Minister said reform was needed to secure the future of the NHS and clarified this did not mean abandoning the founding ideal that the service was free at the point of use.
Starmer revealed the government was building a ten-year plan for the service, “something so different from anything that has gone before.”
The plan would be framed around three fundamental reforms which included moving from an analogue to a digital NHS, shifting more care from hospitals to communities and moving from sickness to prevention.
Saumya Barber, head of proposition development at Unum said she believed the findings from the Darzi report may lead some employers to consider group protection products and their associated added-value services.
She said: “These already excel at two of Wes Streeting’s three shifts: digital rather than analogue services and offering preventative support, such as remote GPs, mental health support and physiotherapy, before illness or injury causes prolonged workplace absence.
“These app-based health and wellbeing services can enable fast access to high quality medical support, whilst working alongside and connecting to the overstretched NHS. This provides increased positive outcomes for insured employees and their family members, while employers reap the reward in higher productivity and lower absenteeism."
During questions from reporters, Starmer was pushed on what he had planned for social care after the government announced it would be axing the social care funding deal brought by the previous administration.
Starmer replied that the country needed a national health service and that was his ambition and promised a fair pay agreement for social care staff.
