Politicians set out their stall at health election debate

Politicians from two major UK political parties have refused to rule out yet more reorganisation—even of a “radical” nature—of the NHS in England after May’s general election.

Speaking on 19 March at a debate about the future of the NHS at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, Andy Burnham, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said that he wanted to “reset” the NHS into a “national health and care service,” including social care. England “will need to embrace radical change in the way it delivers services,” he said, so that hospitals were no longer the “default setting for care.” He floated the idea of local integrated care organisations that would employ GPs directly and an annual care payment to elderly people that would act as …