UK NHS Chief Vows to End “Staggering” Waste and Tackle Inequality in Health Care

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Title: NHS Chief Vows to End “Staggering” Waste and Tackle Inequality in Health Care

 

Dr Penny Dash, the newly appointed chairwoman of NHS England, has delivered a stark diagnosis of the health service’s performance, describing the billions wasted annually as “staggering” and lamenting the dire state of care for the poorest as “a stain on our country.” In a candid interview, Dash, 62, pledged sweeping reforms to improve quality, cut inefficiencies, and make the NHS more transparent and accountable.

 

 

“The dysfunctional bureaucracy of the NHS makes you just want to cry,” said Dash, a former hospital doctor and McKinsey consultant whose leadership will be central to Labour’s ten-year plan for health reform. Confirmed to her role in March by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, she is working closely with NHS England’s chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, to deliver on a vision that includes moving care out of hospitals, investing in prevention, and embracing technology like AI to give patients more control.

 

 

“I am absolutely passionate about improving the quality of care. From my earliest days as a medical student on the wards, I could see variation in the care people were receiving,” she said. “We’ve got some GP practices where less than 2 per cent of people with diabetes get the right care but in other GP practices it’s 80 per cent. That cannot be right.”

 

 

Dash warned that the NHS delivers the worst care to those who need it most. “I think it is a stain on our country that we have some of the poorest communities receiving the poorest care,” she said. “We’ve got fewer GPs per head of population in the parts of the country that need them most than we do in the parts of the country that need them least.”

 

A major patient safety review commissioned by Streeting before Dash took office will be published this week, aiming to roll back some well-meaning reforms that have become bureaucratic burdens. She argued that the proliferation of regulatory bodies—like the patient safety commissioner—has generated hundreds of recommendations with little real impact, while overwhelming NHS staff with training and paperwork.

 

According to Dash, poor disease management costs the NHS £6 billion a year. In 2022 alone, as many as 82,000 deaths in England and Wales were considered preventable with better care. “There is poor management—we have operating theatres that don’t start on time and that has a really high cost,” she said. She pointed to underused scanners and hospital estates, saying: “Much of the estate is only used 30 to 40 hours a week.” She added, “Even when brand new, fully staffed and ready to go, we still don’t use them effectively. Often we could do at least 20 per cent more [scans] during regular hours.”

 

 

Asked whether she believed the NHS wastes too much money, Dash responded, “Absolutely. I do.” She explained, “We have seen this big increase in doctors and nurses, particularly in acute hospitals over the last five to ten years. But we haven’t seen an increase in activity commensurate with that.” She noted that hospital outpatient activity per consultant has fallen, and said, “If we were doing the same number as we were pre-Covid, we’d be doing nine million extra a year.”

 

Dash also promised greater transparency, including publishing performance data on individual doctors and teams. “We’re going really big on transparency,” she said. “We collect more data on quality of care than any other country. Let’s use it, let’s get it out there. We don’t make it easy for members of the public to see it.”

 

She rejected the notion that the NHS is broken but acknowledged serious failings, citing examples such as patients receiving appointment texts for the nonexistent 99th of January or being contacted by phone despite being deaf. “On hearing such stories, you just want to cry,” she said.

 

Looking to the future, Dash argued for a major shift toward larger GP practices capable of running neighborhood health centers and treating more patients in the community. “No one wants to see their mum in a hospital bed for the last few weeks of her life when she doesn’t need to be in that hospital bed,” she said. “It costs an enormous amount of money. Hospitals are really expensive places.”

 

Dash confirmed that from April, the NHS will begin trialing new funding models to support care at home, particularly for frail, elderly patients. “What we’re going to do to help it happen more quickly is to give them additional money to help them reinvest in better services.”

 

Despite the frustrations, Dash remains optimistic. “It’s a huge ask,” she admitted. “But a wonderful opportunity to be offered at this stage in life. I’m 62, I’m fit, I’m healthy, I’m energetic. I can see all the things that could be better.”

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from The Times  2025-07-08

 

 

[roquefort]

Saying all the right things. Let's hope it's followed by some action for once.