Chris Whitehouse, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, predicts changes to the focus of the NHS under a possible future Andy Burnham premiership.
We know that Andy Burnham is prepared to think big. In 2009, as the then Health and Social Care Secretary he proposed a radical reform to create a single, unified National Care Service in England. Outlined in the July 2009 green paper Shaping the Future of Care Together, the vision aimed to end the “cruel lottery” of the existing means-tested social care system, consulting on options for its funding:
- A partnership model in which both the state and the individual share responsibility for funding care.
- A voluntary insurance model where people would get the same minimum proportion of basic care paid for through the national care service, but they could then choose to take out insurance against the cost of the remaining care, through either a state-backed insurance programme or a partnership between the state and private companies.
- A comprehensive model where everyone over retirement age would pay into a state insurance scheme, and would then get the full cost of their basic care met by the state.
But, just a year into his tenure as Health Secretary, a general election intervened and saw Labour lose power. No subsequent government has had the courage to pick up and deliver that proposed National Care Service, although the Labour government under Keir Starmer in 2024 commissioned Baroness Casey to review social care and make recommendations. That process is underway, but, like many important policy projects under Keir Starmer, it is unlikely to see implementation this side of the next General Election, squandering an opportunity to use a substantial parliamentary majority to deliver paradigm-shifting change.
We also know from his time as Manchester Mayor (8 May 2017 – 19 June 2026) that Burnham is committed to removing health inequalities and to preventative health measures. He sees a key role for regional government, particularly elected Mayors, as drivers of change for improved health delivery.
Indeed, as Burnham’s potential Labour leadership rival, then Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, set out in his major policy speech on 25th March this year, he had successfully persuaded Streeting to give new powers to elected mayors.
Streeting specifically singled out Andy Burnham (Manchester) and Oliver Coppard (South Yorkshire) as “2 mayors who’ve placed the public health at the heart of their mayoral agendas. They have more influence over what determines health in their regions as mayors than I do as their health secretary. Frankly and obviously, Andy knows Greater Manchester and Oliver knows South Yorkshire better than wonks in Whitehall. And their theory of change is that if they had more levers and more control, they’d spend money more wisely and deliver better health outcomes across their regions. So we’re going to put that to the test with 2 new health devolution deals”.
Announcing this new approach, argued-for by Burnham, Streeeting went on to say that “the new chairs of their ICBs will, in effect, become like deputy mayors for health. They will work to drive improvements to health system performance. But their mayors will take responsibility for driving improvements to health and care from cradle to grave, and testing whether this model would be more effective at driving the shifts from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention, than the conventional NHS model.
“The conventional NHS model will be changing too. We’ll be designing the first wave of integrated health organisations that will hold the health budget for an entire population, and will be responsible for the provision of all health services for that population. This will be the most radical reform in the history of the NHS. Not just because it’s a complete correction to the centralised model of 1948, but because those who hold the purse strings on prevention rarely see the benefits from the results. And so there’s little incentive for NHS providers to reduce the number of patients coming through their doors for treatment.
“Under this model, all of the incentives are in favour of prevention rather than cure. Now it remains to be seen whether it’s the mayors or the NHS managers who will prove more effective in tackling health inequalities. We will test and learn from both approaches”.
On MedTech innovation and adoption, there is little on public record about what Andy Burnham sees as the priorities, but we have no reason to believe that he will want to abandon Wes Streeting’s NHS Ten Year Plan, the Life Sciences Sector Plan or the now-adopted Value-Based Procurement methodology for the NHS in England.
What we do know about Burnham from his time as Manchester Mayor, is that his approach was collegiate, involving a wide cross-section of businesses in developing and implementing his plans.
If we have Andy Burnham as Prime Minister in the near future, he will be appointing a new Cabinet and wider team of ministers. The challenge for the MedTech sector will be to engage with them and to enter into constructive dialogue about how we can continue to contribute to meeting government’s policy priorities.
The Author used AI in preparing this article. Comments upon or questions about this article can be addressed to chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com.
