NHS ‘ideas for change’ as told by Telegraph readers

Sir Keir Starmer launched a ‘national conversation’ on NHS reform on Monday, inviting the public, experts and staff to weigh in through a public survey and idea page, which the government plans to use to help shape its 10-year health plan.

As part of the biggest conversation on the NHS since its inception, the public has been encouraged to suggest their ideas for reform – of which there were more than 800 in a few hours – and to vote others’ suggestions up or down in a leaderboard.

In response, we asked Telegraph readers to share theirs “ideas for change” to help fix the NHS.

As with the Government consultation, your answers ranged from practical to strange.

Reader Bruce Gow said: ‘Hospital shops should stop selling chocolates to nurses’, while Yvonne McClean called for ‘all nurses and doctors to spend a day every year as a patient in their workplace for to get an idea of ​​what the rest of us are. passing through”.

Paul Senior asked for a fast food tax to be replaced by at least £2.50, arguing: “If you’re too lazy to even have a high-calorie, high-fat meal, then you should start making an advance for your future treatment.”

Meanwhile, Roland Lees suggested we start exporting patients elsewhere: “Most NHS staff come from overseas, like the Philippines, so we should start building hospitals there, twice the size needed, to serve both the local population and the UK. The NHS could then contract budget airlines such as Ryanair to take patients to those hospitals.”

Perhaps the most unusual proposal came from Ed Keith, who proposed an annual ‘NHS Games’ as a revenue stream, with potential events such as ‘mental health vs dental health – tooth removal or anxiety’.

After sifting through nearly 1,000 responses, we’ve narrowed down the ideas that matter most to you, as many of you are calling for the government to “rip everything up and start over.”