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Editor's note: This article was updated on May 1 with quotes from Dr Sarah Clarke, president of the Royal College of Physicians.

LONDON – When the National Health Service was formed 75 years ago, it quickly became the envy of the world as one of the most comprehensive public healthcare systems, providing free, high quality universal care.

Today, however, the NHS is in crisis, with record numbers of patients on waiting lists, huge numbers of staff vacancies, and public satisfaction with the services provided at an all-time low.

The state of the healthcare system will, therefore, be a key issue in the upcoming general election. At the Royal College of Physicians Annual Conference in London, Daisy Cooper, MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for health, wellbeing, and social care, and Wes Streeting, MP, shadow secretary of state for health and social care, shared their parties’ visions for the future of the country’s healthcare system.

“We believe that healthcare should continue to be funded by all of us, and that the NHS should remain free at the point-of-use,” Cooper told the audience. “We unequivocally reject the suggestion that the NHS needs to be radically reformed with a new funding model.”

Cooper said that the UK population is getting older and sicker, and that the NHS has become a “national treatment centre” rather than a health service, because the “hollowing out” of community services, such as GP clinics, dentists, pharmacies, mental health services, and social care, “means that everybody ends up in A&E”. 

“It’s no wonder some people say that the NHS is so broken that it can’t be fixed,” said Cooper. “But me and my party disagree, and the Liberal Democrats’ plans are clear.”

Those plans involve fixing the “front door” of the NHS with investments in public health, primary care, and social care; fixing its “back door” so that patients leave hospitals with the care packages they need; and providing additional funding for the workforce, buildings, and technology.

Cooper said that the Liberal Democrats have already pledged to recruit 8000 more full-time general practitioners, “fix the dental access crisis”, review the pharmacy funding model, and progressively reverse cuts to public health budgets. They will, she said, also create community mental health hubs for children and young people, and provide regular check-ups for at-risk adults. 

She added that the party wants to establish a Royal College for care workers, raise their minimal wage, and set up an independent pay review body to address the “retention crisis”. 

“We’re putting health and social care at the forefront of our general election campaign, but we’ve also thrown down the gauntlet to other parties,” Cooper told Medscape News UK. 

“Our party leader, Ed Davey, has said that immediately after the election there should be cross-party talks so that we can find a long-term stable solution. And we want the other parties to speak up, because there’s no way we’re going to solve this unless we can get every party working together after the election.”

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said if the Labour Party wins the election, it will need to work with healthcare professionals, not only to cut waiting lists, but also to achieve the bigger aim of “building a healthier and happier country” by tackling its growing health inequalities.

Streeting promised a “decade of renewal” based on a 10-year plan for health and social care, which would include providing two million more operations and appointments per year and training thousands more general practitioners. He also pledged an additional £1.1bn for frontline staff, and AI-enabled scanners in every hospital for faster and more accurate diagnoses.

Streeting then urged delegates to “stay with us and help us change the NHS for the better”, and invited all NHS staff to write to him about “all the stupid stuff that is holding [it] back.”

“The NHS is in the worst crisis it’s ever been in. Labour has a strong record on the NHS, having created and delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in history. I’m regularly approached by Conservative voters and Conservative colleagues in Parliament who are convinced that the NHS will be in better shape under a Labour government.”

“I hope that, through delivering our 10-year plan for health and social care, we can not only get the NHS back on its feet for the future, but also build an unbreakable consensus and direction of travel so that the NHS will survive and thrive in the next 75 years,” Streeting told Medscape News UK.

Dr Sarah Clarke, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said that the College “is calling on the next UK government to look to the future and focus its attention on happier staff and a healthier nation”.

“We believe the next government should focus on five priority areas [to help them] deliver a healthier nation with access to excellent patient care,” Clarke told Medscape News UK. 

“[These are:] Investing in the NHS workforce by ensuring we have enough health and care staff, and that they have enough time and resource to meet the needs of patients. Transformation by empowering clinicians to work with patients and the public to redesign healthcare services. Prevention by developing a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities. Sustainability by taking bold and ambitious action to tackle climate change and protect health. And innovation by ensuring that more doctors are able to take part in clinical research and quality improvement.” 

Moheb Costandi is a freelance science writer based on London.