Professor Steve Thomas:

We should give credit where credit is due. The Government put a lot of money into the system during Covid. It realised the huge value of healthcare. Unlike in many other countries, a lot of the money was directed towards system capacity and changing things for the better. Why did it not happen earlier? Did it really need to take Covid to do this? Did it really need to take the cost-of-living crisis to show us that people need help when they are accessing care? Unfortunately, it appears that it did. There is a certain amount of ruefulness. From some of the conversations I have been having with some of the decision-makers in the Department, the system would have been much better prepared for Covid if they had advanced the universal agenda earlier. That is now spilled milk, as if it were. Nevertheless, there is a new realisation that healthcare is not just important for people who are sick but it is also important for the economy and for society going forward. If something good has come from Covid, it may be that there is this renewed focus, that the money that has gone into health can stay in health and actually help us deliver universal care, which is what we need.