While rising energy costs, food inflation, and the ongoing effects of Covid-19 continue to affect daily life, recently it seems that government ministers are finally accepting that the NHS is in serious trouble and that there’s a need to address its difficulties.

Back in 2024, Wes Streeting, the new Labour government’s health secretary, expressed what most of us had been thinking for some time, stating that ‘this government will be honest about the challenges facing our country, and serious about tackling them. From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken’ (‘The NHS is broken: health and social care secretary statement’ — www.gov.uk).