Tony Blair has urged the NHS to ‘cooperate’ with the private sector, as it buckles under the pressure of waiting lists and strikes.
The former Labour leader has described the NHS as failing to provide a good standard of care, despite the tireless work of dedicated staff.
Blair, 70, stressed that ‘private’ should not be considered a ‘dirty word,’ and instead posited that the public sector should harness the innovation offered by the private sector.
Asked whether he considered the NHS to be providing a good standard of service, Blair responded: "No, at the moment. In some respects the staff do a great job in difficult circumstances.
Blair delivers a speech during a gala dinner at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, at the end of the international conference marking the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement on April 19, 2023.
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"And I think the general experience of people is if you're in really acute difficulty, then it still does provide very good care.
"But a lot of the waiting lists are terrible, COVID, of course, has made it a lot worse.
"The truth is, you're not going to have a lot more money to spend, but you do have to think, how do we do things completely differently."
Blair believes the NHS needs to transition from a service that primarily treats illness, to one that focuses more on prevention and wellbeing.
Blair foresees AI revolutionising the NHS
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The former Prime Minister dared to propose the benefits from a system of “complete cooperation between the public and private sector".
He told Sky News: "The problem always with the public sector, and this is what I learned in government, is the tough thing is to get it to innovate.
"Because in the private sector, if you don't innovate, you go out of business, but it doesn't happen in the public sector.”
Blair tipped the private sector to embrace and harness AI to help develop cures and treatments that should streamline the health service.
NHS LATEST:
Blair listens to staff at the Amwell Road medical practice in north London where he launched the NHS (National Health Service) Improvement Plan in 2004
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Blair added that the NHS was not currently serving its purpose despite employing more people than ever before.
He said: "The NHS is a great institution and we should keep its principles. But the truth? I mean, you don't have to be a genius to look at it and say it's not, it's not serving its purpose."
By the end of May, the burgeoning NHS waiting list reached a record 7.47 million people waiting to start routine hospital treatment.
Sir Tony Blair served as Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007.
While in office, Blair doubled NHS spending to over £100billion, increasing from 39.9 per cent of GDP to 48.1 per cent.
Blair is the second longest serving prime minister in modern history after Margaret Thatcher, and is the longest serving Labour politician to have held the office.
