Re:Imagining Health

While at its inception the National Health Service was visionary, three quarters of a century later, with demand rising and outcomes deteriorating, a bold and urgent rethink is needed. The current model no longer works for patients, who too often struggle to access high-quality timely care; for medical staff, who feel disempowered, stressed, and burnt out; or for taxpayers, who foot an increasing bill for a service which is struggling to cope. Simultaneously, social care, always the junior partner, remains woefully underfunded, with deep geographical disparities, vast unmet need, and a workforce that is underpaid, undervalued, and suffering from excessive vacancies.

This workstream will look at how health is created, resources are allocated, and care is delivered. 

Maximising the health and wellbeing of the nation requires a fundamental shift away from seeing health as an NHS problem to solve. We need to redesign the system to reduce and divert, rather than simply manage demand – and that means rethinking where the power and resource sits.  

Our research programme, 'Re:Imagining Health', will focus on how to transform England’s approach to health and care. It will consider how to move from a treatment-oriented model to one geared towards health creation, the changes necessary in healthcare to facilitate this, and how to build a fair and sustainable approach to funding across health and care.