The future of the NHS is a massive issue and always at the top of the public agenda.
While the Service is the topic of fierce debate at election times, and is often used as a political football to criticise or discredit opponents, the need for a longer-term more considered view is vital to help ensure public debate is better-informed.
In this spirit the Lancet has launched a new joint Commision with the London School of Economics and Political Science on the future of the NHS. The Commission will examine how well placed the NHS is to deliver high-quality care free at the point of need in light of the massive demographic and political changes that have occured since its launch in 1948.
CLAHRC North Thames Director Professor Rosalind Raine (below) is one of the prominent thinkers recruited to be part of the Commision.
The Service’s 70th anniversary provides a timely opportunity to review how much the NHS can still fulfil its aspiration, set out in the 1942 Beveridge Report to be “a national health service for prevention and for cure of disease and disability” that “will ensure that for every citizen there is available whatever medical treatment he requires, in whatever form he requires”.
Over the next 18-month period, Professor Raine will join commissioners from a wide range of disciplines across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to focus on the pertinent challenges facing the NHS, culminating in the release of a report containing a series of policy recommendations in 2019.External organisations can submit written evidence to the Commission on their perspectives regarding the biggest challenges facing the NHS. |
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An opinion piece in the Lancet marks the start of the Commission’s work.
The future of the NHS: no longer the envy of the world?Mossialos, Elias et al.The Lancet , Volume 391 , Issue 10125 , 1001 – 1003DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30574-9 |
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