Under pressure to solve the acute health system crisis, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunaka called for a “bold and radical” action at an emergency meeting with experts and industry representatives on Saturday.
The public health system, the National Health Service (NHS), already strained after years of underfunding, is facing a particularly difficult winter, with hospital emergency rooms in particular being overwhelmed by the twin flu epidemics and Covid-19.
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Waiting lists for patients requiring surgery are growing longer, in a tense social context, with a social movement of nurses – the first in more than 100 years – and paramedics against the backdrop of the cost of living crisis. The situation is such that the government, accused of inaction, organized this emergency meeting on Saturday to try to find solutions to the crisis.
Speaking to health experts and sector representatives welcomed at Downing Street, Rishi Sunak, who made health one of his five priorities for the coming year, believed that a “state of mind of the status quo will make the challenges we face will not solve,” Rishi Sunak said in comments reported by the PA agency. “During the pandemic, we’ve had to be bold and radical in how we’re doing things to get through this. I think we need the same bold and radical approach now,” he added. “Today we can collectively define the things that will make the greatest difference for the country and each family in the short and medium term,” he added.
The government invited unions to talks on Monday to end the strikes, which are affecting the healthcare sector as well as other sectors. In particular, nurses are demanding a large wage increase to deal with inflation exceeding 10%. Ahead of these discussions, the general secretary of the sector’s main union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, appreciated that “the ball is clearly in the Prime Minister’s court” who “needs to do some money on the table” to raise salaries on the go year to increase further.