Doom, Gloom and the NHS
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 917 Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2024
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Lord Darzi’s report on the state of the NHS is released, Nick and Amol take a look at what needs to be done to bring about real change.
They speak to Professor Sir John Bell - one of the country's most decorated doctors and an adviser to government during the Covid-19 pandemic - who believes that more funding is not the only way of improving the NHS.
Plus, the nation's favourite pub landlord Al Murray drops in with his moment of the week.
If you have a question you’d like to Amol and Nick to answer, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of The Today Podcast land first on BBC Sounds. Get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
You can listen to the latest episode of The Today Podcast any time on your smart speaker by saying “Smart Speaker, ask BBC Sounds to play The Today Podcast.”
The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producers are Hatty Nash and Hazel Morgan, the researcher is Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Hannah Montgomery and digital production from Elliot Ryder and Joe Wilkinson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We get it. Life is busy. You want to keep up with the news, but there's just too much going on. |
| 0:06.9 | Which is where Newscast comes in. We do the work, and when you're ready to dig deeper into the day's news, you just pop us into your ears. |
| 0:14.8 | It does mean we have to put in the hard work, though. |
| 0:17.5 | Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:21.6 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:25.3 | Can't help noticing. |
| 0:27.2 | The shorts. |
| 0:28.8 | They've gone. |
| 0:30.0 | You've given in? |
| 0:31.2 | Well, I came under substantial peer pressure from colleagues on this podcast to put my |
| 0:35.4 | legs away, which I was actually quite offended by it because I would think my legs are probably my best feature. But anyway, they have gone away. There is a certain chill in the air. Autumn has descended both politically and climatically. Do we say climatically? Anyway, it's the season of gloomnik, and our Prime Minister continues to match the temperature with his political rhetoric, which is cool, chilling and a little dry. |
| 0:55.7 | Good God, it is, isn't it? I mean, first on the economy, we're told how broken Britain is. |
| 1:01.6 | Then we're told that there's a black hole, societal black hole. Then we're told so much so |
| 1:07.5 | that pensioners, 10 million of them need to lose their winter fuel allowance. |
| 1:12.4 | And now it's the NHS. |
| 1:14.1 | It's broken. |
| 1:15.1 | That is the official description of the government that the NHS is broken. |
| 1:18.4 | Well, that is the big story of the week. |
| 1:20.0 | And one of the things we can do on this podcast is you've got the time to explore the policy options and how we fix the NHS. |
| 1:25.9 | And that really is the big story that Britain is confronting this week. |
| 1:28.7 | So we're going to get into it and work out where fixing the NHS fits within this new |
| 1:33.9 | labour government's project. |
... |
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