NO MORE STICKING PLASTERS! IT'S 'REFORM OR DIE' FOR NHS

THE NHS must "reform or die", the Prime Minister will say today after a damning report found the health service was in "critical condition".

- Hanna Geissler

It describes worsening services, including appalling waiting times for emergency and planned treatment, escalating struggles to see a GP or dentist, and higher rates of cancer deaths than comparable countries.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to brand the decline "unforgivable" and promise a 10-year rescue plan. He will say: "What we need is the courage to deliver longterm reform major surgery not sticking plaster solutions.

"The NHS is at a fork in the road, and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands. Raise taxes on working people to meet the ever-higher costs of an ageing population or reform to secure its future. We know working people can't afford to pay more, so it's reform or die."

Calling the planned overhaul potentially "the biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth", the PM will vow to include staff and patients in the process.

Sir Keir will outline "three big shifts" from analogue to digital technology, from hospital care to greater care in the community, and from sickness to prevention.

He will add: "Only fundamental reform and a plan for the long term can turn around the NHS and build a healthy society. It won't be easy or quick. But I know we can do it."

Labour commissioned an independent review of the NHS by surgeon and former health minister Lord Ara Darzi after winning the General Election. Over nine weeks, the independent peer examined more than 500 pages of evidence from charities, professional bodies and other organisations, received advice from a team of 75 experts as well as analyses from the Department of Health and from NHS England.