If you were Health Secretary for a day, what one change would you make to the NHS?

I'd focus on social care — specifically, funding enough home care and rehabilitation so that people who are medically ready to leave hospital can do so safely.

The reason is that it affects the whole system¹. When patients who no longer need hospital care can't be discharged because there's no support at home, they take up beds. That means patients in A&E can't be admitted, ambulances wait outside, and planned operations get cancelled. It's also bad for the patients stuck in hospital — older people can lose strength and independence² quickly lying in bed.

In practice, that would mean more funding for councils to pay care workers better — recruitment is difficult partly because care work is poorly paid — and joint teams between hospitals and councils to plan discharge early. Integrated care systems should in theory make that easier.

The trade-off is cost, and the money would have to come from somewhere³ — taxes, or other services. It also wouldn't produce results in a day: recruiting care staff takes time.

I'd judge success by⁴ the number of patients waiting in hospital when they're ready to leave, A&E waiting times, and whether people discharged stay well at home rather than being readmitted.

I'm aware it's a problem successive governments have promised to fix, which suggests it's harder than it sounds.