Therese Coffey’s NHS plan won’t avert the winter crisis

How much of a difference will the ‘Plan for Patients’ unveiled by Therese Coffey really make to the NHS crisis? The health service is already operating in winter mode (which generally means not really working and under extreme pressure) and the temperatures have scarcely dropped. The Health Secretary’s opening big announcement today was what she described as ‘the first step’ in the government’s ‘journey’ of addressing the challenges facing the health service. It followed her priories of ABCDD – ambulances, backlog, care, doctors and dentists – with new measures on each.

Some of the most significant policies included changing the pension rules which are currently making it far less attractive and financially sensible for GPs to stay in the job for as long as they (and their patients) might want. This has repeatedly been highlighted by doctors and NHS figures as being one of the many drains on the general practice workforce.