NHS must reform or die, PM to say, after critical report

In his speech, Sir Keir will say the 2010s were the “lost decade” for the NHS and add: “People have every right to be angry. It left the NHS unable to be there for patients today, and totally unprepared for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.

“The NHS is at a fork in the road and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands.

“Raise taxes on working people or reform to secure its future. We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it is reform or die.”

He will also say waiting times in A&E are leading to avoidable deaths, adding: “People’s loved ones who could have been saved. Doctors and nurses whose whole vocation is to save them – hampered from doing so. It’s devastating.”

Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins said the government had still yet to come up with meaningful plans for reform.

“The Labour government will be judged on its actions. It has stopped new hospitals from being built, scrapped our social care reforms and taken money from pensioners to fund unsustainable pay rises with no gains in productivity.

“They need to move from rhetoric to action.”

She also defended the Conservative government’s record, pointing out the NHS budget had been increased during the last Parliament.

Thea Stein, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said while Lord Darzi’s report was “not surprising” it was still “deeply troubling”.

“The big question now is what happens next.”

William Pett, of the patient watchdog Healthwatch England, said the problems needed to be addressed, describing services as in disarray and waiting times as excessive.

And he added: “These challenges are not experienced equally, with poorer communities hit hardest.”