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Welcome to the briefing room with me, David O'Ronovich. The briefing room is the

metaversal thought capsule where in 28 minutes you and I get to understand a big issue

with the help of the top experts on the subject.

Post-pandemic, the NHS is in trouble.

This week, we're going to look at why and what might most usefully be done.

Last year, spending on health and social care in the UK hit nearly £200 billion.

That's roughly a fifth of total government spending.

Yet the perception has been that things have got worse. Have they? If so, how much worse?

How do we compare with other similar countries? And what might we do differently?

Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out.

First, what are the main challenges facing the NHS? Siva Ananda Siva is chief analyst at the King's Fund and Professor Carol Proper is a health economist at Imperial College.

Carol Proper, even the best-funded and run

health service, would have taken a really big hit from the COVID crisis. What in your view

are some of the biggest issues that the NHS has been left with as a consequence?

I think the first is that there's been a huge drop in utilisation during the COVID period

and we're only just returning to 2019 levels for both elective and emergency care.

Now just to be clear, a drop in utilisation, what you mean by that in the NHS is doctors,

not or surgeons not being used, operating theatres not being used and so on.

Well, obviously, during COVID, what I mean is that there were just fewer patients who showed up to the hospital,

either because they were worried about getting COVID or because things were cancelled,

or because they simply didn't show up because perhaps they were ill.

...