Prime minister cannot “wish away” NHS crisis, healthcare leaders warn

Healthcare leaders have accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of failing to acknowledge the current crisis in the health service.

In his New Year’s speech1 on 4 January, Sunak made five overarching promises that he said he should be judged on, one of which was to cut NHS waiting times in England.

He insisted that the government had put in record amounts of funding to the NHS and was recruiting “record numbers of doctors and nurses,” but acknowledged that “healthcare professionals are still unable to deliver the care they want, and patients aren’t receiving the care they deserve.”

Sunak did not make any new concrete policy commitments on the NHS, but reiterated previous promises to give patients more choice …