NHS at 75: How will healthcare look in the next decades?

Isabel Hardman, Henry Marsh and Hugh Pym in discussion

The NHS has marked its 75th birthday this year. But celebrations were muted given an uncertain outlook for the health service.  The continuing impact of the pandemic on waiting lists and public health has cast a long shadow. Strike action by NHS staff has dominated headlines. Debates about long term funding and workforce planning continue. At the same time technology and digital services offer intriguing possibilities for future patient care.

To discuss the state of UK health now and in the future, Isobel Hardman and Henry Marsh join BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym.

Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman is the Assistant Editor of the Spectator and also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster. In 2015 she was named the youngest ever Political Journalist of the Year by the Political Studies Association. She appears regularly on TV and radio, including Have I Got News for You, The Andrew Marr Show, The News Quiz, Today programme, Question Time and Sky News. She also writes columns for The Times, The Guardian, The Sun, The Observer, Evening Standard, and the Daily Telegraph. 

Henry Marsh

Henry Marsh is a retired neurosurgeon and the bestselling author of Do No Harm and Admissions. Both books were Sunday Times No. 1 bestsellers, and have been translated into over thirty languages. Do No Harm was awarded the South Bank Sky Arts Award and the PEN Ackerley Prize, and was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award, Duff Cooper Prize, Wellcome Book Prize and Guardian First Book Award. Marsh was made CBE is 2010. Since retiring from full-time work in the NHS in 2015, he continued to operate and lecture abroad. He is married to the anthropologist Kate Fox, and lives in London and Oxford