Darzai review: Key points from damning new report into state of NHS

Published

3 weeks ago

September 12, 2024

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A major report on the health service has been published in which it is described as being “in serious trouble”.

The rapid review by Lord Darzi was completed in just nine weeks and sets out the problems in the NHS and themes for the government to incorporate into a 10-year plan for reforming the health service.

Lord Darzi, a widely respected surgeon and former health minister, insisted the NHS can be fixed.

His report detailed the following issues:

• The health of the nation has deteriorated, with more years spent in ill health. Contributing factors – over the past 15 years – include poor quality housing, low income and insecure employment. The result is the “NHS has faced rising demand for healthcare from a society in distress”.

• There has been a “surge” in multiple long-term conditions, including a rise in poor mental health among children and young people. Fewer children get their vaccines and fewer adults now participate in things such as breast cancer screening.

• Waiting times targets are being missed across the board, including for surgery, cancer care, A&E and mental health services. “Long waits have become normalised” and “A&E is in an awful state”.

• People are struggling to see their GP. “GPs are seeing more patients than ever before, but with the number of fully qualified GPs relative to the population falling, waiting times are rising and patient satisfaction is at its lowest ever level.”

• Cancer care still lags behind other countries and cancer death rates are higher than in other countries. There was “no progress whatsoever” in diagnosing cancer at stage I and II between 2013 and 2021. However, more recent figures show some improvement.

• Progress in cutting death rates from heart disease has stalled while rapid access to treatment has deteriorated.

• The NHS budget “is not being spent where it should be” and too great a share is being “spent in hospitals, too little in the community, and productivity is too low”. Too many hospital beds are taken up with people needing social care.

• Between 2009 and 2023 the number of nurses working in the community fell by 5%, while the number of health visitors dropped by nearly 20%.

• At the start of 2024, 2.8 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness, with most of the rise since the pandemic down to mental health conditions.

• Raids on capital budgets have left the NHS with crumbling buildings and too many outdated scanners, and “parts of the NHS are yet to enter the digital era”.

• The NHS delayed, cancelled or postponed far more routine care during the pandemic than any comparable health system.

• Too many NHS staff are “disengaged” and there are “distressingly high levels of sickness absence”.

UK

Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Published

36 mins ago

September 29, 2024

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Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Robert Jenrick has defended being handed a £75,000 donation from a company which had received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), despite criticising Labour over the freebies row.

Questions have been raised over the ultimate source of the funds from The Spott Fitness, which gave Mr Jenrick three separate £25,000 donations in July.

As first reported by Tortoise Media, the company received a loan from a firm based in the BVI.

The Tory leadership contender told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that The Spott Fitness “as I understand it… is a fitness company that operates in the UK”, and the donation was “perfectly legal and valid”.

Politics Live: Tory leadership candidates faced questions on Sky News

Mr Jenrick spoke to Sky News alongside the three other rivals to replace Rishi Sunak, as the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham kicks off.

During the interviews, Kemi Badenoch said she is a fighter and if someone takes a swing at her “I will swing back”.

Meanwhile, Tom Tugendhat defended his “posh boy public school background”, saying his military service has given him leadership skills, while former home secretary James Cleverly refused to name any of the previous four Tory prime ministers as being to blame for the party’s general election defeat, saying the public “don’t like infighting”.

Jenrick says donations ‘valid’

Asked about the donations from The Spott Fitness, which have been declared on his MPs’ register of interests, Mr Jenrick said: “As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK.

“It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way that one does with donations.”

Pressed for details on who owns the company and who works for it, the former immigration minister said this would be set out “on Companies House in the normal way” and he has “obviously met people who are involved in the company”.

“What people are criticising Labour for is actually rather different,” he added.

“Labour are being criticised for their rank hypocrisy that they spent years complaining about other political parties and then they’ve chosen to take off donors and cronies and to give passes to Number 10 in response.”

The Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week was overshadowed by a donation and freebies row, after it emerged Sir Keir Starmer accepted over £100,000 in gifts since 2019.

Questions have been raised in particular over the large amount given by Labour peer and TV executive Lord Alli, who had a pass to Number 10 for a short time in order to attend meetings, the government said.

The Conservatives are now gathering in Birmingham since their worst defeat at the ballot box in history at the July general election.

Jenrick backs ‘cast iron cap’ on migration

Mr Jenrick, currently the frontrunner to replace Mr Sunak, said his party made “serious mistakes” and failed to deliver.

He is pitching himself as a “change” candidate, telling Trevor Phillips he would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) in order to get the failed £700m Rwanda asylum scheme up and running, and introduce a cap on migration.

He said this would be different from previous commitments to introduce a limit as the cap would be “legally binding… cast in iron”, with the number set “in the tens of thousands or lower”.

Badenoch: ‘If you swing at me I will swing back’

Mr Jenrick faces competition on the right from Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister.

Speaking to Phillips, she defended an Op-ed in The Daily Telegraph in which she claimed there was a rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.

She said she was not referring to all Muslim immigrants “but there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two”.

The combative shadow housing secretary also insisted she does not go looking for fights when asked about her rows with the likes of Doctor Who star David Tennant, but that she will stand up for herself.

The North West Essex MP said: “I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me I will swing back but I don’t look for fights.”

She added: “I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest.”

‘Public don’t like bickering’

All four leadership contenders will make their case at the party conference this week, before another round of voting by MPs will reduce them to the final two, which the party membership will then vote on.

Mr Cleverly, who got the least votes of those remaining in the previous round, said his various cabinet roles in the past few years meant he has spent “more time promoting other people’s ideas” rather than his own – but that shows he is a “team player”.

He declined to name a prime minister who he blamed most for the party’s 2024 defeat but added: “I’ll tell you what the public told me they didn’t like – they didn’t like the constant infighting, they didn’t like the bickering.”

Mr Tugendhat asked the public to judge him on his own record, rather than his public schooling.

“I think that decisions I have made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you are looking at,” he said.

“I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

UK

Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

Published

36 mins ago

September 29, 2024

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Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

An eight-year-old boy has died after sustaining “serious” injuries to his head and face after being shot at a farm.

Cumbria Police said they are investigating the incident, and said they were called to the farm – in the Warcop area – at around 2.50pm on Saturday.

They said they received “a report that a child had been seriously injured by a firearm at the property” and that police and North West Ambulance Service attended.

“The firearm was secured at the scene by police and an eight-year-old boy was taken to hospital by air ambulance having suffered serious and life-threatening injuries to his head and face,” they said.

“Sadly, the boy has died overnight.”

Cumbria Police added officers arrested a man in his 60s at the scene on suspicion of assault GBH.

“He remains in police custody but is now under arrest on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter,” they said in a statement.

UK

Rosie Duffield ‘never thought’ she would quit Labour – but says Sir Keir Starmer ‘has problem with women’

Published

36 mins ago

September 29, 2024

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Rosie Duffield 'never thought' she would quit Labour - but says Sir Keir Starmer 'has problem with women'

Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said she never thought she would leave the party “in a million years” and suggested the prime minister has a “problem with women” after her resignation.

The Canterbury MP, who submitted a scathing resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday, told the BBC she is “desperately sorry” to those in her constituency who voted for Labour.

“It’s not at all where I wanted to be. I never thought in a million years I would leave this party,” she told the broadcaster late last night.

“I’m trying not to get upset… it’s in your soul and your heart, particularly someone like me.

“I’m from a very different background to Keir Starmer. I was a single mum who needed the Labour Party.

“It’s just so profoundly disappointing as a Labour voter and activist and a former recipient of tax credits in a low-paid job to see this is what we’ve become.”

Her resignation letter to the prime minister said she was “so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party”.

In the interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Duffield was asked if she thought Sir Keir “has a problem with women”.

She replied: “I’m afraid I do. I’ve experienced it myself.”

The now-independent MP said she and other female Labour backbenchers refer to “the young men who surround” Sir Keir as “the lads”.

“It’s very clear that the lads are in charge,” she added.

“They’ve now got their Downing Street passes and they’re the same ones briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs.”

Her resignation letter specifically criticised Sir Keir’s treatment of Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott as “deeply shameful” after her long-term suspension.

Reacting to Ms Duffield’s resignation on Sky News, Labour minister Pat McFadden said he “regrets” her decision, but added: “It’s probably not a secret that she’s been unhappy for some time.”

On questions of “sleaze” that relate to Sky News revelations of the prime minister receiving more freebies than any other MP, he said he “wouldn’t characterise it in the way that Rosie has” and that there was “no public money involved”.

He also said he is “not ashamed of the party” and that “government is always tough” in light of Labour’s decision to cut winter fuel payments for thousands of pensioners.

Starmer ‘hasn’t actually explained’

Ms Duffield told Kuenssberg Labour’s three months in power has been “mass hypocrisy” she “can’t be part of”.

“It’s greed,” she said. “Why else would someone on so much more money than most people get free gifts? He can absolutely afford his own clothes – we all can.”

She said Sir Keir “hasn’t answered” or “actually explained” the situation.

In response to the revelations on his donations, he said: “Wherever there are gifts from anyone, I’m going to comply with the rules.

“It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election. I reinforced it after the election. And that’s why shortly after the election, my team reached out for advice on what declarations should be made so it’s in accordance with the rules.

“They then sought out for further advice more recently, as a result of which they’ve made the relevant declarations.”