We face a once-in-a-generation chance to get health reform right

We were world pioneers when the NHS was set up in 1948, and we must show the same imagination now

The NHS is consistently voted our best-loved institution – the thing that makes us more proud to be British than anything else. But being loved alone is not enough to help it cope with the huge demographic changes that surely constitute the biggest challenge in its 70-year history. Can it weather the storm?

As we absorb the headlines and fly-on-the-wall documentaries about the very real pressures on front-line services, we sometimes forget the areas where our healthcare excels. According to NHS England, outcomes in most major conditions have dramatically improved in the past three, five or 10 years. Some 7000 people are alive today who wouldn’t be if cancer survival rates had stayed the same as in 2010 – and we are starting to close the gap with the best European countries in breast cancer survival rates for the first time.

We have a history of leading the world in medical breakthroughs such as IVF and radiotherapy, as well as pioneering cutting-edge technology such as CT and MRI scanning, and trail-blazing surgical procedures such as hip and knee replacement.

Whenever the NHS has faced big structural challenges, it has always risen to them – such as the drive to close the asylums in the 1980s, bringing down waiting times in the early 2000s and, more recently, driving up quality and safety in the wake of Mid-staffs. Indeed, since the introduction of a new Ofsted-style inspection regime just five years ago, 2.1 million more patients are being treated at good or outstanding hospitals – which, for the first time this month, make up the majority of our hospitals.

These achievements are only possible because of the superhuman efforts of NHS staff. Throughout the winter we heard stories of people trudging 10 to 20 miles through the snow to make it into work for their patients, while hundreds of others chose to sleep overnight in hospitals and GPS’ surgeries to guarantee that they could be there for patients the next morning. In one hospital, which was struggling to get vulnerable patients discharged and free up beds, the finance director donated his own shoes to a patient who had arrived in hospital without any – just so that he could return home. I would challenge even our smartest FTSE companies to show that kind of commitment to their customers.

However, sheer physical exhaustion and the constant pressure of rising demand means that now is the time to give health service staff hope of a different way forward. I have long believed we have a choice: we know there will be a million more over 75s in 10 years, so, do we put our heads in the sand and rely on sticking plaster solutions? Or do we think strategically about the best way to face up to this once-in-a-generation challenge?

The Prime Minister has been clear that things need to change, which is why staff so warmly welcomed her commitment to a new multi-year funding settlement and 10-year reform plan for the NHS. Like me, she wants our service to be the safest and the highest quality in the world. So let’s use this opportunity to be ambitious.

Many of our services for older people are hopelessly disjointed. Although some areas are successfully joining up the health and social care systems, many are not – meaning highly vulnerable older people end up having to tell their story over and over again for multiple assessments by different people. So, can we finally join up our health and care systems on the back of a long-term plan?

We still lag behind France and Germany on cancer survival – something that rankles with everyone who has lost a loved one to cancer. So, over the next decade, can we transform our cancer survival rates?

Our mental health provision is some of the best in Europe, but still people wait longer for treatment for some conditions than would ever be tolerated if they had a stroke or they broke a leg. Can we create genuine equality between physical and mental health?

We still have higher infant mortality rates than many European countries. With the improvements we are bringing in to maternity safety, can we end the scandal of having to pay around four families every week multimillion pound settlements because a precious child was disabled at birth?

And if the public are going to put more money into the NHS we must prove that every penny is well spent. So let’s sort out the waste and productivity issues that still see wild variations in the prices that hospitals pay for basics such as surgical gloves – £1.27 in one hospital compared to just 50 pence in another.

The biggest risk, however, is that we sort out yesterday’s problem tomorrow. In 10 years’ time we won’t be talking about today’s buzzwords but the dramatic transformation of modern healthcare by technology and medical innovation. We may well be asking computers as well as doctors for a diagnosis, which will look not just at our medical history but our genetic profile as well. And all our results will be pinged straight through to medical records sitting on our phones.

Curiously, despite its chequered history with IT projects, the NHS has the potential to lead that revolution globally. We have some of the best GP records in the world, which we are starting to share around the system. We host five of the world’s top 10 medical research universities, and have a global lead in genomics. So this surely is our opportunity: to use modern science and technology not just to fix the old problems but lead us to brand new solutions.

Back in 1948 we turned heads all over the world by being one of the very first countries to set up a universal healthcare system. The NHS came to define what a 20th century healthcare system should look like. Could we use the power of technology to define a 21st century healthcare system as well? That is the opportunity, and I have no doubt that our NHS will, once again, rise to the challenge.

Jeremy Hunt is the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care