How to save the NHS from itself

Britain’s ageing health infrastructure comes close to breaking point every winter, but this year something is going to give way. On top of the usual litany of complaints about funding and increasing demand on the NHS from an older population, we can add covid backlogs, waiting times stretching into multiples of nominal targets – and now even the workforce downing tools and walking out.

As usual, the government is going to try to keep things functioning with short-term sticking plasters. There will probably be more millions shovelled onto the ever-burning furnace of the NHS budget, with little to show in terms of patient outcomes. There will, at some point, be a resolution to the issue of staff pay. And then next year, there will be a new crisis. Even if it isn’t at the same level of intensity as this year’s, it will still come, as will the one after that, and the one after that.