Life Support: The state of the NHS in an age of pandemics: 2022

Description

In 2020, the NHS faces an unprecedented challenge as coronavirus sweeps the globe. The crisis has exposed both the strengths and the weaknesses of one of our most cherished institutions as it mobilises to treat the sick and prevent the spread of the disease. Thousands of retired doctors and nurses have returned to the front line to join an extraordinary national effort to save tens of thousands of lives. Yet the emergency comes at a time when the NHS is under huge strain, draining resources from an already creaking system. Fundamental questions about its state - and its future - remain. How good really is the NHS and can it cope with the formidable challenges it faces, even without the terrifying new threat of global pandemics? Every day, millions of patients receive care that is fair, good or outstanding and they are grateful. In keeping with Nye Bevan's founding principles, the same treatment is available to rich and poor, and is free at the point of need. Public support for the concept remains overwhelming. Yet for every positive NHS experience there are negatives: care that is substandard, disjointed and arrives too late; patients dying while on waiting lists and suffering because they cannot get the treatment they need. A cult of secrecy surrounds errors and failings. Politicians on all sides dissemble and lie. This book seeks to strip away the spin and uncover the true state of the NHS: the good, the bad and the ugly. It explores an increasingly urgent question: can the NHS go on like this?

LORD ASHCROFT KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. He is a former treasurer and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. He is also honorary chairman and a former treasurer of the International Democrat Union. He is founder and chairman of the board of trustees of Crimestoppers, vice-patron of the Intelligence Corps Museum, chairman of the trustees of Ashcroft Technology Academy, a senior fellow of the International Strategic Studies Association, a trustee of the Cleveland Clinic in the US, a former chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University and a former trustee of Imperial War Museums. His books include Victoria Cross Heroes: Volumes I and II; Call Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron; White Flag? An Examination of the UK's Defence Capability; Jacob's Ladder: The Unauthorised Biography of Jacob Rees-Mogg; Going for Broke: The Rise of Rishi Sunak; Unfair Game: An Expose of South Africa's Captive-Bred Lion Industry; Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer; and Falklands War Heroes: Extraordinary True Stories of Bravery in the South Atlantic. ISABEL OAKESHOTT is an award-winning political journalist and commentator. She was political editor of the Sunday Times and co-wrote White Flag? An Examination of the UK's Defence Capability with Michael Ashcroft; Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat with Philip Lymbery; and various other non-fiction titles. She writes for The Spectator, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday and regularly appears on television.

"An insightful and thought-provoking guide to the challenges facing the NHS after it has been through the trauma of Covid, and as it looks ahead to how to embrace the rest of the twenty-first century. Much of the analysis and many of the stories will ring true to anyone who has experienced the NHS first-hand. Anyone who loves the NHS and wants to see it thrive would do well to read this book." - Rt Hon. Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health, 2018-21 "This is a brilliant account, exhaustively researched with a balanced assessment of the good, the bad and the ugly. It's a great narrative of how incredible our NHS can be but with chilling stories of the damage some patients have suffered and of a culture that is often closed and defensive. I hope this book will trigger an urgent debate about whether our NHS is as good as it can and should be - and what therefore should be done about it." - Sir Stephen Bubb, director of Charity Futures and the Oxford Institute of Charity "A tour de force ... This book is a balanced, thoughtful account which recognises the existence of vested interests within the health sector and its frighteningly challenging agenda of rising demand and expectations, workforce shortages and the urgent need to adopt new ways of working. It recognises the power and value of the great ideal that underpins the health service but is not starry-eyed about its prospects ... For anyone seeking a better understanding of how our most cherished institution really works and its prospects, this is a must-read." - Niall Dickson CBE, former chief executive of The King's Fund, the General Medical Council and the NHS Confederation "This is a truly insightful tour d'horizon which should rightly warn anyone away from silver bullets to solve issues facing the NHS. But anyone seeking to make sensible improvements will find much good sense in its pages." - Rt Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Health, 2012-18