Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The NHS 10-year plan is a metaphor for Theresa May’s government

Today’s NHS 10-year plan is the health service’s response to the £20.5 billion funding boost announced by ministers last year. The Prime Minister is unveiling further details of the plan this morning, with NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens doing his own broadcast tour to sell it. He argues that the plan ‘tackles head-on the pressures our staff face’ and also ‘sets a practical, costed, phased route map for the NHS’s priorities for care quality and outcomes improvement for the decade ahead’.

The plan is a good metaphor for the May government, too: its announcement was delayed from its original launch date of late autumn, there is a £1 billion ‘black hole’ in funding, and health chiefs have not been able to match some of the government’s rhetoric on salient issues such as mental health.

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