Summary

  • Keir Starmer says the NHS is in a critical condition, but there will be no extra money without reform

  • Responding to a damning report into the health service, the PM says the NHS is broken but not beaten

  • Earlier, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said three "big shifts" were needed: a move from hospital to community care; from analogue to digital; and from treating sickness to preventing it

  • The report – by surgeon and former Labour minister Lord Darzi – found "ballooning" waiting times and delays in A&E and cancer care - read a summary here

  • The Conservatives say the NHS needs to "reform, modernise and improve productivity" to thrive in its next 75 years

Live Reporting

Edited by Jamie Whitehead

  1. Who is Lord Darzi?

    Lord Ara Darzi speaks during a Human Rights & Humanitarian Forum on Day 2 of the 2024 Aurora Prize Events on May 09, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.Getty Images

    A surgeon with more than 30 years' experience in the NHS, Lord Darzi has acted as an adviser and minister to the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

    He is a former health minister who holds the Paul Hamlyn chair of surgery at Imperial College London. He has said the GP partnership model is out of date and that GP services should be brought “into the fold” to allow the NHS to provide a more complete service.

    For his review - which was only formally announced on 11 July - Lord Darzi took evidence from a range of organisations, including the British Medical Association, the Doctors’ Association UK, the Royal College of General Practitioners and Londonwide Local Medical Committees.

  2. The report's key findings

    Lord Darzi's report – commissioned by the government – was the result of a nine-week review of the NHS in England. Here are some of the key findings:

    • The NHS is struggling after the pandemic and falling short of targets for cancer, A&E and hospital treatments
    • This has contributed to poor survival rates for cancer and heart disease
    • Waiting times for hospital procedures have "ballooned" and there's been a surge in the waiting lists for mental health services
    • The health service was weakened by the austerity of the 2010s, the report says
    • It warns rising levels of illness are risking economic prosperity, with 2.8 million people unable to work because of poor health
    • Lord Darzi says: "Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have found during this investigation – not just in the health service, but in the state of the nation’s health"

  3. NHS in 'critical condition', major report finds

    Aoife Walsh
    Live editor

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer is warning the health service must "reform or die" after a major report into the state of the NHS in England found it's in a "critical condition".

    The report – by surgeon and former Labour minister Lord Darzi – says the problems could take up to eight years to fix.

    The review was commissioned by the government after it came to power in July to help identify failings in the health service.

    It found the NHS is struggling after the pandemic and falling short of key targets for cancer, A&E and hospital treatment. It says this is contributing to poor survival rates in cancer and heart disease.

    Starmer will deliver a speech addressing the report later this morning – stay with us as we bring you live updates, reaction and analysis.