Isabel Hardman

Boris has no answer to the backlog crisis

• 3 November 2021, 3:47pm

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

Johnson has no answer to the question about the staffing of the health service because his government is yet to offer a plan. As I wrote last week, the Budget failed to produce the promised long-term workforce plan, or indeed clarity on the funding for Health Education England. Yesterday, Sajid Javid said there would be a 15-year plan for the NHS and social care workforce and that ‘spring is roughly the time for that’. This is a long time to come up with a solution to a problem that existed before the pandemic (and indeed was an issue even back in Hunt’s days as health secretary). It’s also a long time to put off any shorter-term solutions to the gaps in workforce that are making it more difficult for hospitals to cut the backlog.