For decades successive governments have consistently failed to deliver on promises to make England’s health and care system focused less on hospitals and more on primary and community care, a report by the health think tank the King’s Fund has said.1
It said this was “one of the most significant and long-running” policy failures for more than 30 years and pointed to several reasons for the lack of success, including politicians looking for quick fixes, funding flows that prioritised hospitals, and a lack of long term strategies to create the workforce and services needed.
The King’s Fund has now called on politicians and national leaders to refocus the health and care system to put primary and community care at …