While understandable, the risk is that short term imperatives will crowd out time and energy to deliver long term ambitions to transform health and care in line with the aims of the Health and Care Act 2022. Integrated care systems established under the act are developing plans to improve the health of their populations and care delivery and these plans may now be put on the back burner. Pressures on local government spending and the likelihood that more councils will declare bankruptcy reinforce the importance of using resources in different sectors. The next government will face difficult choices in view of the implausible spending plans outlined in the autumn statement and the dire state of the public finances. The discretionary effort on which the NHS relies has been eroded by the pandemic, staff sickness, and chronic staff shortages.

Source: The Times December 14, 2023 09:54 UTC