UK PM admits NHS healthcare system 'broken'

The United Kingdom's publicly funded healthcare system, the National Health Service, or NHS, is "broken" but can be fixed, the country's prime minister insisted on Thursday.

Keir Starmer said in a speech made in response to a damning report about the NHS that the service is, indeed, far below the level it should be operating at, but he said his government will turn things around.

Starmer said the report released on Thursday by former Cabinet minister and surgeon Ara Darzi, which details "ballooning" wait times and gridlock in accident and emergency, or A&E, departments was accurate.

But he said more investment is not the answer.

"We have to fix the plumbing before turning on the taps," he said. "No more money without reform."

Speaking at a gathering organized by the King's Fund, a healthcare think tank that has called for "change" and "bold action", Starmer said the NHS failings are a matter of "life or death".

Blaming mismanagement by the Conservative Party administration that ran the country before his government took over on July 4, Starmer said: "People have the right to be angry".

Calling Darzi's report a "raw and honest assessment" of the state of the NHS, he said the inefficiency and shortcomings of the service, which keeps almost a tenth of A&E patients waiting at least 12 hours, is "devastating, heart-breaking, infuriating" and a cause of avoidable deaths.

Starmer conceded more than 100,000 sick infants waited at A&E departments for six hours or more last year, and said many people with mental health issues do not get help for at least a year. But he said the NHS "may be broken, but it's not beaten".

Earlier, Health Secretary Wes Streeting had also responded to the report, saying the government will oversee three "big shifts" in how the NHS operates.

Streeting said it will, in future, prioritize care in the community over hospital stays; migrate the way it works, from analogue to digital systems; and focus on preventing illness, instead of treating it.

Starmer picked up on those ideas in his speech, saying the NHS, which was stretched to its limits before the novel coronavirus pandemic began, must "reform or die". But he insisted that, no matter how it changes, treatment will be free at the point of delivery.

"When you fall ill, you should never have to worry about the bill," he said.

Starmer explained that the NHS overhaul will involve a move away from massive hospitals in population centers toward smaller neighborhood hubs, and more digital consultations.

The government will detail its plans in the coming months, but Starmer said they will take 10 years to complete. And he did not mention how much they will cost.