Nhs backlog

Monday

Oscar Edmondson

Grooming gang row overshadows Starmer’s big NHS speech

17 min listen

In a speech this morning, the Prime Minister unveiled his plans to tackle the NHS backlog and hit back at comments Elon Musk has made regarding grooming gangs, the government’s response to them, and about the Prime Minister’s own role in their prosecution. Whilst the Prime Minister’s speech was plagued by the familiar platitudes about the NHS it was shortly followed by the government’s NHS elective recovery plan, which does include some interesting proposals to shift healthcare away from hospitals – for example, giving cash incentives to GPs each time they consult with a specialist to see if there is an alternative to hospital visits. Is this plan the miracle

Thursday

Andy Cowper

No, Mr Hancock, Covid didn’t cause the NHS backlog

You might think that a cabinet minister and privy councillor whose reputation for truthfulness had been brought into (very public) question would be inclined to keep their public utterances strictly on the straight and narrow. You’d be failing to allow for the enthusiastic approach of the Health Secretary. Matt Hancock used his presentation to today’s NHS Confederation Conference to try to explain that the five million-strong NHS backlog, claiming it was down to Covid-19. Asked about providing guarantees of funding to address the NHS backlog, Mr Hancock told the event that ‘the virus is responsible, and the backlog is a consequence of the pandemic’.  This is, quite simply, untrue. The NHS backlog