NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens’s final speech today was watched online by hundreds of health service bigwigs. But its main audience was much smaller. It was aimed squarely at just two people: Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
Stevens’s main message was about funding. The government, and, in particular, the Treasury, may not be thrilled once they wrap their heads around his statement on the five-million-strong (and Covid-predating) NHS backlog that ‘when the health service is given the backing and the tools we need, we can deliver what’s required’.
Translated into plainer language, Stevens was saying: ‘Get your wallets out: this is going to hurt’. The mega-hint here is clear: Sir Simon is putting the Treasury on notice that he can use his seat in the Lords to be a thorn in the government’s side should they try to short-change the NHS of the funding it badly needs.
Given the NHS’s popularity in the wake of the vaccine triumph, this is something that could come back to bite the government
There is a loud echo here of Stevens’s ‘five tests’ for the 2015 Comprehensive Spending review negotiations.
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