Criticising the lack of vision for the under-pressure health system, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, said the value of such an agency was “blindingly obvious” and described the response by the administration as “deeply disappointing”.
The creation of an Office for Health and Care Sustainability, likened to the fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility, had been a key recommendation of a Lords select committee on the long-term sustainability of the NHS and adult social care.
In its conclusions, the committee highlighted a “culture of short-termism” in the NHS and adult social care.
Criticising the “short-sightedness” of successive governments, the inquiry found almost everyone involved in the health service and social care system seemed “absorbed by the day-to-day struggles, leaving the future to ‘take care of itself'”.
The committee said a new political consensus on the future of the health and care system was “desperately needed”.
Speaking during the Lords debate on the report, the bishop, who sat on the committee, stressed the need for a long-term view.
He told peers: “We need to be looking at 15 or even 20 years ahead and at present that is simply not happening.”
The Government had dismissed the suggestion of an independent body arguing it would “replicate existing mechanisms”, but he said: “Existing mechanisms are not currently prompting or helping anyone to plan for the…
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