Lord Darzi Investigation

Lord Darzi was asked by the Secretary of State to “undertake a rapid investigation of the state of the NHS” and create a report with the findings. The first finding of the report was summarised as “the National Health Service is in serious trouble”. The report was created over nine weeks and despite Lord Darzi working in the NHS for more than 30 years, he was shocked by what he found.

NHS in “Critical Condition”

Lord Darzi explains that the damage done to the NHS has been over a decade in the making and therefore, it will take time to repair. The report explains that although “the NHS is in critical condition…its vital signs are strong”. The suggestions within the report provide themes for the government to incorporate into a 10 year plan to reform the NHS.

Among many other issues, the report detailed the following:

• People are struggling to see their GP. As population rises and fully qualified GP numbers fall, GPs are seeing more patients than ever. Waiting times and patient satisfaction levels are at an all time low. The report finds that GP shortages are the worst in deprived communities.
• A&E is in an awful state. Many people will have personal experience with horrendous waiting times in A&E, the report found nearly 10% of patients are now waiting 12 hours or more. According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, these long waits are likely to be causing an additional 14,000 deaths a year.
• Waiting times for hospital procedures have ballooned. Not only A&E waiting times have been affected, in June 2024 it was found that over 300,000 people have waited over a year for treatment which was promised to start within 18 weeks. This is in contrast to March 2010 where 20,000 people waited more than a year.
• Cancer care still lags behind other countries. It was recently found that more than one in four cancers in Hull are discovered only after an emergency hospital admission, which is the second highest rate in the country. While survival rates at 1, 5 and 10 years have all improved, the rate of improvement slowed substantially during the 2010s. The UK has higher cancer mortality rates than other countries. There has been no progress made in diagnosing cancer at stage 1 and 2 between 2013 and 2021.

The pandemic had a noticeable impact on the NHS, its aftermath leaving a backlog of care. The report states “The decade of austerity preceding Covid-19, along with the prolonged capital drought, saw the NHS enter the pandemic with higher bed occupancy rates and fewer doctors, nurses, beds and capital assets than most other high-income health systems.

The NHS’s resilience was at a low ebb.” Routine care was cancelled, postponed or delayed at a staggering rate, hip replacements fell by 46%, knee replacements by 68%. The report explains that the NHS continues to struggle with the “aftershocks of the pandemic”. The service has been “chronically weakened by a lack of capital investment…by tens of billions of pounds”.

NHS Waiting Times Too Long

Lord Darzi does not doubt the clinicians and staff within the NHS, stating there is “extraordinary depth of clinical talent…there is a shared passion and determination to make the NHS better”. The report states that waiting times must be addressed quickly, but that it will take years rather than months. The major themes for the 10-year health plan include re-engaging staff and re-empowering patients and driving productivity in hospitals and reform. The report states that “in an unprecedented act of transparency…the NHS is now an open book. The issues are laid bare for all to see”. Lord Darzi hopes that the NHS can be turned around, improved and secured for generations to come.

Our clinical negligence team have witnessed the devastating impact that the issues highlighted by Lord Darzi have upon patients and their loved ones. Whilst it is positive that the issues with NHS are being recognised and acknowledged and that changes are afoot, this does not alter the fact that patients are still suffering the consequences and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, there has been a sharp rise in clinical negligence claims against the NHS, with Lord Darzi noting the number of claims to be at record levels. In the year 2023/24, £2.9 billion was paid out in respect of clinical negligence claims, this being approaching 2% of the NHS’s budget. We have secured compensation for numerous individuals who have been let down by the NHS and we will continue to fight for justice for the victims of our broken healthcare system.

If you or a loved one have suffered injury as a result of failings in NHS care, please contact our team in the clinical negligence department on 01482 323697 to discuss how we can help.