How would you fix the NHS?

Any new government starts by wiping out historic organisational debts
Cost Improvement Programmes are suspended for at least 18 months
The NHS starts planning on the basis that there may be a “fixed budget” but until you can really plan for costs linked to people being ill (most people do not plan to be ill) there should be an annual 10% flex in the system
Immediate freeze on any major new system implementations that have not started but are being “planned”
Any major systems that are in the process of being upgraded, it must be agreed that they have a working life of at least five years
Make sure that staff start receiving training on the use of MS Teams, Sharpoint and anything else where this type of thing was introduced during the pandemic
Get rid of post except where there are accessibility or stakeholder requirements – that will improve the speed of response and reduce postal costs (ok – it might put Royal Mail out of business)
Encourage ownership of mistakes – the team or the organisation that got something wrong has the responsibility to make it right
Insist that legal deadlines are met – staff personal preference about whether a SAR or FOI should be responded to should be shot down
Insist on quality rather than quantity – efficiency is not the same as effectiveness
Make it a condition of use of the NHS that patient data will be used for research and population health management – that is not the same as profiling or targeting people or that anyone is really interested in who they are

How would you fix the NHS?

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