NHS 'at risk of paralysis while it waits for Streeting reform plan'

The NHS is at risk of paralysis while it waits for Wes Streeting's 10-year plan for reform and needs to be empowered to get on with change in the face of huge waiting times for care, a thinktank has said.

- Rowena Mason

Victor Adebowale, a crossbench peer and chair of the Institute for Public Policy Research, said a clear message was needed from the health secretary that NHS leaders should be able to start reforms where they are aligned with government priorities.

He described long waits for care as "the tragic new normal" for many patients and highlighted IPPR analysis showing 25 times more people waited for more than four hours in A&E this summer than during the same period in 2009.

Lord Adebowale is also chair of the NHS Confederation, the membership body for health authorities and trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Writing in his role as IPPR chair, he said several senior NHS leaders had described to the thinktank "a feeling of 'sitting and waiting' for the 10-year plan, unable to initiate major change in the meantime".

He wrote in a blog, exclusively shared with the Guardian: "A system in which local leaders have long been expected to look 'upwards' for instruction generates paralysing uncertainty, disempowerment and leadership churn.

"This must be replaced by a clear message from the secretary of state that leaders should not wait for the NHS 10-year plan, but get on with reform aligned with the government's three shifts: towards prevention, digital, and community-based care.

Leaders should be empowered to work towards these goals now, with the reassurance that these efforts will not be wasted."