The UK House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published a report raising concerns that senior leaders of both NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) lack ideas and are ‘complacent’.

The report asserts that NHS England and the DHSC leaders lack innovative ideas and the necessary drive to transform the NHS.

It emerged from a session in November last year, in which five top civil servants, including NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard and the DHSC’s then-permanent secretary Chris Wormald, were questioned.

The PAC report underscores the urgency of modernising the NHS to improve the nation’s health, but describes senior officials’ approach to this as ‘remarkably complacent’, especially concerning the realisation of future productivity improvements.

NHS England and the DHSC are developing a ten-year plan to revamp the NHS, aligning with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s stated commitment to preparing the service for the future.

This plan is expected to transition NHS services from analogue to digital, shift its focus from hospital to community-based care, and pivot from treatment to prevention.

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PAC chair Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “The evidence given to our inquiry exposes the perennial weaknesses with which those scrutinising this country’s health systems are now very familiar.

“Truly fresh ideas and radical energy must be generated to meet the scale of what is required ‒ on community healthcare, on prevention, on digital transformation.”

The PAC said the DHSC and NHS England must take ‘a more planned and disciplined approach’ to preparing the NHS for the future, in particular preventing ill health, bolstering community healthcare and adopting digital technology.

Among the committee’s recommendations is for NHS England to increase its spending on healthcare in local communities each year, as well as ensure that its systems and processes incentivise local systems to work with those most in need of help.