The government is planning a shake-up of the NHS. Here’s what that could mean for the future of the health service thetimes.co.uk/article/nhs-sh…
What is the biggest change?

Sources familiar with the proposed shake-up say the government plans to centralise decision-making. One health source said: “The NHS is getting a new driver.” That new driver could be Matt Hancock
The new driver will have the power to block the closure of hospitals and direct how the NHS provides services. In effect, future health secretaries could overrule NHS executives from their offices in Whitehall
What are the ramifications?

They are huge. If future governments can run policy inside NHS clinics, GP surgeries and hospital wards, they are much more likely to be able to promote changes they have promised the electorate
If they want to promote a drive to combat obesity, for instance, ministers could simply reallocate resources to focus on fat
This shift in power could also be a poisoned chalice. At the moment, health secretaries can distance themselves from the NHS when things go wrong. But if they’re in the driving seat, there’s no hiding place
In addition, if healthcare becomes even more politicised, it runs the risk of illness falling in and out of fashion. David Cameron focused much attention on the burden of dementia, but subsequent administrations have not matched his dedication

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More from @thesundaytimes

23 Jan
New polls reveal today that a majority of voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland want a new referendum on the break-up of Britain thetimes.co.uk/article/union-…
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13 Dec 20
The same mistake.

Our Insight investigation charts how the government increasingly diverged from the advice of its own scientists in the run-up to the second wave of the outbreak. thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/4…
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Failing to do so would leave the country in the worst of all worlds
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24 Oct 20
A Sunday Times Insight investigation can today reveal that thousands of elderly people were denied potentially life-saving treatment to stop the health service being overrun - contrary to the claims of ministers and NHS executives

thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/r…
The NHS was placed in the impossible position of having to cope with an unmanageable deluge of patients. Despite warnings the prime minister procrastinated for nine days before bringing in the lockdown. During this time the number of infections rocketed

thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/r…
It meant Britain had more infections than any other European country when they took the same drastic decision. As a result, the government, the NHS and many doctors were forced into taking controversial decisions - choosing which lives to save

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26 Sep 20
#WorldatFive: Restaurants and bars are thronged, people swim in the Yangtze river and jog along its banks. Life seems strikingly normal in Wuhan, ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic thetimes.co.uk/article/wuhan-…
#WorldatFive: The turnaround is dramatic. Earlier this year, Wuhan resembled a ghost city, enduring the world’s harshest lockdown. It is now the focus of a Communist Party propaganda blitz hailing “victory” over the virus thetimes.co.uk/article/wuhan-… Image
#WorldatFive: The regime’s focus is on promoting success in containing the virus and Wuhan’s comeback — proof, it claims, of the wise leadership of Xi and the superiority of the authoritarian system thetimes.co.uk/article/wuhan-… Image
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19 Sep 20
The US postal service finds itself at the centre of a row ahead of the November 3 presidential election and has become yet another Trump-era partisan football thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…
A total of 36% of Americans say they plan to vote by mail in this election, which could mean as many as 50 million postal ballots. The deep, enduring fear is that the USPS, in the midst of a funding crisis, will not be able to process them for November 3

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In a political environment as febrile as America in 2020, with Donald Trump turning up his attacks on the mail-in voting process, a delay in the postal vote count could be disastrous

thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…
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