A Picture of Health

The NHS needs a major funding increase, structural re-organisation and new priorities according to a Fabian Society report edited by the Shadow Health Secretary. A comprehensive agenda for the future of the NHS is presented in a series of chapters commissioned and edited by Jonathan Ashworth MP. A Picture of Health: the NHS at 70 and its future brings together analysis and policy recommendations from 12 leading experts on the NHS hand-picked by Ashworth, from both left-wing and non-party perspectives.

A Picture of Health: the NHS at 70 and its future looks backwards at the history and achievements of the NHS over the last 70 years. And it looks to the future, in the context of acute financial pressures and growing healthcare needs . The report argues that now is the time for the left to develop a new agenda for how the service is organised, funded and reformed.

As well as Jonathan Ashworth MP, the report’s authors include Luciana Berger MP, Paul Williams MP, Lord Kerslake, Sara Gorton (head of health at UNISON), Tara Donnelly (chief executive at the Health Innovation Network), and Andrew Harrop (Fabian Society).

Recommendations by the report’s authors include:

• Annual funding increases for the NHS in England substantially in excess of Conservative plans
• Restructuring the NHS to unpick the market reforms of Andrew Lansley
• Prioritising child health, mental health and action on health inequalities
• Strategically shifting away from reactive acute hospital services towards proactive community-based care
• Systematically implementing digital solutions with the strongest evidence base.

You can read the report in full here.