Last week’s report by Lord Ara Darzi on the state of the country’s health service made bleak reading. In relentless detail, the distinguished surgeon outlined the steady decline that has taken place in the NHS over the past 15 years, a decrease in effectiveness that now causes an estimated 14,000 unnecessary deaths a year, he argued. As headline writers for the nation’s newspapers made clear: the NHS now faces a simple truth. It must “reform or die”.

How this change can be brought about is unclear, however. Our health service needs to be better resourced, although the government has warned little money is likely to be made available for such a monumental transformation. Most of the reform that will be needed to save the NHS will have to come from within, ministers have emphasised. In other words, internal innovation and improved use of existing assets will be central in ensuring British people receive proper medical attention in the coming........

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