Sustainable healthcare: Practical steps to build back better in the English NHS

Article

Good healthcare is a vital foundation for the future of our country – including the health of its economy and of its democracy.

Given health outcomes were not on a positive trajectory even before the pandemic, it is clear policy must aim higher than simple recovery. Delivering on better health as a people’s priority must mean building back better.

To support this, the Institute for Public Policy Research and Future Health Research have come together to identify immediate learnings from the pandemic. Our ambition has been to understand areas of consensus, where sustainability can be better embedded.

Brilliant care is still possible within our NHS, and the search should be for policies that can help the NHS both universalise and sustain the best care now, for all, in a period of intense global health uncertainty. Our analysis in this report has identified five key areas where sustainability can be strengthened:

  1. thinking differently about investment
  2. narrowing inequalities
  3. ending the postcode innovation lottery
  4. connecting the health service through data and integration
  5. building a sustainable workforce.

Related items

  1. Must try harder: do the Holyrood 2026 manifestos meet our tests?

  2. An energy smart meter sits on a countertop. It reads electricity: £61.71, gas: £148

    Flex factor: How government can keep network costs on bills down

    Government must strike a better balance between bringing down energy bills now and building a system fit for the future.

  3. Acceleration is not a strategy: A framework for directing AI towards public value before it's too late

    The politics of artificial intelligence is set to drastically change in 2026 as recent technical breakthroughs get implemented across the economy.