Is it too late for the Tories to fix the NHS?

Anyone who thinks the NHS isn’t in a state of collapse hasn’t been paying attention. This is the 75th year of the health service, and it is arguably its worst. Emergency doctors are now warning that A&E delays are ‘killing up to 500 people a week’. They say as many as 500 people could be dying each week because of delays in emergency care, with horrific individual stories about 99-hour waits and patients lying on the floors of A&Es. What is harder even for those who are paying attention to spot is what the government is doing to respond to this crisis. 

Rishi Sunak has been worried about the NHS ever since he took over as Prime Minister, and long before. As Chancellor he took on the unremarkable position of every occupant of the role since 1948 by complaining about how much the service cost. Meanwhile he didn’t do a great deal about some of the key drivers of inefficiency that the government can change, including the crisis in social care.