Government should declare ‘national health and care emergency’, says BMJ

The UK government should declare a “national health and care emergency” – according to the British Medical Journal, whose report into the future of the NHS says the entire service is facing an existential crisis.

Not so, says the government as it today launched a new initiative allowing pharmacies in England to hand out prescriptions for some minor illnesses.

But in the face of strikes, staff shortages, underinvestment and soaring demand – just how is the NHS supposed to survive?