Recommendation 1

Our key new recommendation is that, by April 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care works with NHS England to produce a broader national health and care recovery plan that goes beyond the elective backlog to emergency care, mental health, primary care, community care and social care. It should be sensitive to the needs of local populations, incorporate the plans already announced in the ten-year plan, and explain how they will be delivered by the new Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). That plan must also set out a clear vision for what ‘success’ in tackling the backlog will look like to patients. In setting those metrics for success, the plan must take account of the risk that a reliance on numerical targets alone will deprioritise key services and risk patient safety. Instead, it must embrace a range of indicators to demonstrate that hidden backlogs are also being tackled and compassionate cultures encouraged.