After a thorough examination, Ara Darzi has now given the NHS a diagnosis so that ministers can write the prescription.12 This medical analogy is apt but demands an evidence based response.Streeting’s insistence that the NHS is “broken” indicates that he might want to impose a new model,3 despite Darzi pointing out these are more expensive. Broken means “separated into pieces as a result of a blow,” a description of the 2022 Health and Care Act that Darzi unaccountably sees in a positive light.At the Labour conference, Streeting identified a decade of underinvestment as a key cause of harm. That increased funding is not now a high priority is puzzling, particularly given that the last Labour government boosted NHS performance and public satisfaction in this way. Shifts to community care, technology, and prevention are hardly novel (featuring in the 2014 Five Year Forward View)4 and will clearly require investment to be…
