John Bell

John Bell, the former Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, was interviewed on today’s episode of the Today programme podcast. The following conversation with the BBC’s Nick Robinson has been edited for length and clarity. You’ve heard tell of the NHS problems for quite a long time. Let’s just go to the headline facts and some of the things that we know are coming out. Is the NHS underfunded, John? So I think it is not underfunded. To be honest I think we need to get better at using the money that’s in it. It’s really interesting because if you go back to the Derek Wanless days, we did run a health care-service, which for many of my early years when I was a practicing physician, was profoundly underfunded and the outcomes weren’t bad. It was very cheap and cheerful.

The UK and EU are currently locked in a debate about Britain’s participation in the Horizon Europe science funding programme, with the EU blocking the UK from taking part due to concerns about the Northern Ireland protocol. The situation is very disappointing for scientists. Eighteen months ago, when the Brexit deal was signed in good faith, the UK government signed up to participate in the programme. This would have been a good thing. But it has now been turned into political football. As a result, 18 months later, scientists don't know where they are. We're apparently not in the programme, it looks like we're out. But this row is running on and on, time is going by, and I'm just not sure how much longer Britain should wait.