A landmark independent investigation has found the NHS to be in a ‘critical condition’, it has been revealed.
Lord Ara Darzi – who is an independent peer and practising surgeon, with 30 years’ experience in the NHS – was commissioned to write a report that will inform the Government’s 10-year plan to reform the nation’s health service.
He examined more than 600 pieces of analysis from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England, and external organisations during his investigation.
70 organisations were brought together in an ‘Expert Reference Group’ during the investigation, while Lord Darzi also sought input from NHS staff and patients through a number of focus groups and frontline visits.
Overall, his probe concluded that the service is in a “critical condition”.
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NEW: @ImperialNHS Professor Lord Darzi has published his independent investigation into the state of the NHS.
This report will inform the government’s 10-year plan to fix our broken NHS.
The report particularly highlighted surging waiting lists, and a deterioration in the nation’s underlying health, as well as identifying “serious and widespread problems” for people accessing its services.
“Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have found during this investigation,” Lord Darzi admitted.
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“My colleagues in the NHS are working harder than ever, but our productivity has fallen.
“We get caught up frantically trying to find beds that have been axed, or using IT that is outdated, or trying to work out how to get things done because operational processes are overwhelmed.
“It sucks the joy from our work – we became clinicians to help patients get better, not to go into battle with a broken system. We need to rebalance the system towards care in the community, rather than adding more and more staff to hospitals.”
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Lord Darzi declared that the NHS is now “an open book”, and added that the Government needs to have a “more honest conversation” about performance.
"I've worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, but I've been shocked by what I've found during this investigation."
Despite the damning analysis, Lord Darzi did insist that the NHS’s vital signs “remain strong” and he praised staff for their “shared passion and determination to make the NHS better for our patients”.
In response to Lord Darzi’s investigation and the publishing of the report, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scale of the damage done to the NHS revealed by the report is “unforgivable” and that “major surgery” is needed to reform the service “not sticking plaster solutions”.
“People have every right to be angry,” the Prime Minister said.
“It’s not just because the NHS is so personal to all of us, it’s because some of these failings are life and death. Take the waiting times in A&E. That’s not just a source of fear and anxiet, it’s leading to avoidable deaths.
“People’s loved ones who could have been saved. Doctors and nurses whose whole vocation is to save them – hampered from doing so.
“It’s devastating.”
Featured Image – rawpixel
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Emily Sergeant -
12th September 2024 
