On Monday, with his sleeves rolled up and surrounded by health workers, Sir Keir Starmer unveiled Labour's plans to overhaul the NHS.
To take the service into the future, he said, "we need an NHS that is reformed from top to bottom."
In essence, the proposed reforms – agreed upon by the NHS – aim to improve patient experience and outcomes, streamline workflows for NHS staff, and alleviate pressure on critical workers.
The key changes include a significant upgrade to the NHS app, opening new or expanding existing surgical hubs to perform non-urgent procedures such as cataract surgery, extending the operating hours of community diagnostic centres, and reaching a new agreement with the private sector to help address areas with long waiting lists.
Few would argue that the NHS doesn't need reform – the winter flu season highlights just how much pressure the system is under – but as the major unions told me this week, expanding services will be challenging without addressing staffing shortages.
One part of that problem, according to the BMA's Dr Helen Neary, is that people are leaving the healthcare industry altogether, primarily because they are burnt out and no longer view it as an attractive career.
I was intrigued, then, by Health Minister Karin Smyth's counterpoint. In a radio interview, she suggested that the less frantic pace of surgical hubs and diagnostic centres could present a viable alternative for healthcare workers who can no longer work in hospitals but still wish to care for patients.
"So, we know that some of these locations will actually be attractive for staff to work in because of where they are and the sorts of work they're doing," she said.
It's just one small piece of the puzzle, but the government has given itself time (until 2029) to see if these reforms succeed. Let's see how it goes.
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