Review of the NHS: Lord Darzi Report13 September 2024Back in July 2024, Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced that the “NHS is broken” and that work to turn the health service around would take time. The new Labour government asked Lord Darzi to carry out a full-scale independent review of the NHS. Lord Darzi, a member of the House of Lords and a cancer surgeon who worked in the NHS for over 30 years, obtained evidence and data from many people and organisations and held meetings with key individuals to collate information for his report. The report was finalised within just 9 weeks and presented to the nation on 12 September 2024. You may remember that Lord Darzi led a similar review in 2008, leading to the report High Quality Care for All. In line with the comments made by Wes Streeting, Lord Darzi accepts that the health service is in serious trouble. The report accepts that the state of the NHS should not be seen as due entirely to what has happened within the service but linked to severe deterioration in the health of the nation and includes other drivers of health, such as housing, social care and employment. As many people will know, the health of the nation has been decreasing and more people are being diagnosed with long-term health conditions. The report acknowledges that whilst people are living longer than they ever have, they are also spending more years living with ill health. We welcome the comments made by Lord Darzi around the need for keeping the nation healthy and ensuring that prevention is at the heart of the NHS. One major theme highlighted is that people are waiting longer for treatment. Musculoskeletal services are mentioned specifically for long wait times as they largely affect working-age people and are the biggest cause of long-term sickness. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis which comes under the umbrella of Musculoskeletal conditions as does Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). Peter Foxton, CEO of NRAS, has responded to the report: None of us will be surprised that the report acknowledges that the NHS is in a “critical condition”. However, it is vital that we recognise the importance of the NHS and I echo Lord Darzi’s comment: “it’s not a question of whether we can afford the NHS. Rather, we cannot afford not to have the NHS”. For people living with RA/JIA and their families, the NHS is their lifeline. Our mission as a national patient organisation is to support all with RA and JIA to live life to the full and we will continue to work with the NHS in all four nations and the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that the voice of those living with inflammatory arthritis is heard alongside other serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. NRAS welcomes the comments made within the Lord Darzi’s report and the Prime Minister’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that the NHS is fit for the future. This autumn the NHS are creating a 10-year plan on how funding will be used and how the service will be reformed. We will keep you updated of how things progressed over the coming months and the involvement we have had. If you want to share your story or comments about the NHS and the Lord Darzi report, please email campaigns@nras.org.uk and quote “Lord Darzi”.