Sajid Javid is right to make the NHS more accountable

The health secretary has announced more money for the National Health Service. It’s a story we’ve heard time and time again – but this time the details are different.

Sajid Javid has committed an additional £250 million for GP health practices to assist them in expanding their hours and upping the number of face-to-face appointments they offer. In-person appointments plummeted during lockdown and have never recovered: they are now hovering around 60 per cent, compared to 80 per cent pre-pandemic.

So what’s new? In short, the money comes with more accountability. A league table is being created to rank surgeries on how many in-person appointments they offer. Patients will also be able to rate their appointments via text-message, putting even more data in the public domain about the quality and efficiency of GP services.

There will of course be some details to work out. For example, the ‘appropriate’ number of in-person appointments may be difficult to determine and could vary between practices in different parts of the country.