Sir Tony Blair has warned the NHS will “continue down a path of decline” without radical reforms, including a greater role for the private sector.
The former prime minister called for “brave political leadership” to protect the future of the health service.
Marking its 75th anniversary, Sir Tony said there is no future for the NHS without “fully embracing the tech revolution”.
And he called for the service to make much more use of private healthcare providers to cut waiting times. Sir Tony’s suggestions included that patients should be allowed to pay to speed up access to healthcare.
His intervention comes the day after former health secretary Sajid Javid, who has suggested patients should be charged to see a GP, called for a royal commission into the model of the NHS. He said the NHS was “frozen in time” and an inquiry was needed to compare it with models used in comparable countries.
And the ex-Labour leader, in a report by his Tony Blair Institute think tank, said: “The NHS now requires fundamental reform or, eventually, support for it will diminish. As in the 1990s, the NHS must either change or decline.”
He said that despite “pockets of excellence”, the NHS is falling behind the healthcare systems in other countries, as many services remain “slow and unresponsive to digital transformation”.
Embracing the private sector would open the NHS to providers where the “incentives of funding and accountability are designed to encourage innovation”.
Sir Tony said the NHS App has opened the door to partnership with the private sector in “ways that were not possible before”, creating “opportunities for greater choice and competition”.
In the foreword to his report, which suggests reforms to make the NHS fit for the future, SirTony backs expanding the role of the private sector on six occasions.
Sir Tony said: “Change is never easy and requires brave political leadership. If we do not act, the NHS will continue down a path of decline, to the detriment of our people and our economy.”
But health secretary Steve Barclay has insisted the NHS can prosper without a dramatic overhaul, insisting it needs “constant evolution, not a big bang moment”.
He brushed off calls from Mr Javid and Sir Tony to consider a fundamental shakeup of the model of the NHS.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the NHS needs ‘constant evolution, not a big bang moment’
(PA Wire)
And Mr Barclay said the NHS being free at the point of use is “a source of national pride”, adding that the government is “fully committed to these founding principles”.
Writing in The Times, the health secretary said: “Clearly, there are pressures on services, particularly following the pandemic, and as a result of changing demographics and health needs.
“It is important the NHS changes and adapts in response to this, and improving technology and medical advancements, but this requires constant evolution — not a big bang moment.”
And he added that, under the government’s plans, the NHS “will be fit to deliver the best care to patients for another 75 years”.