In this episode of Prevention is the New Cure, former Health Ministers Steve Brine and James Bethell sit down with Sir Jim Mackey, Chief Executive of NHS England, for a wide-ranging and candid discussion about the future of the NHS.

Sir Jim addresses the crisis facing NHS demand, the limits of hospital-centric care, and why prevention, neighbourhood health systems, and disruptive reform are essential if the NHS is to survive the next decade.

🔍 Key topics include:

• Why the NHS “can’t carry on doing things the same way”
• The reality behind the 10-Year NHS Plan
• Shifting funding from hospitals into community and preventative care
• The future of GP health checks — and why GPs are divided
• Can prevention really reduce demand on hospitals?
• NHS productivity, technology, and patient-owned data
• Lessons from Northumbria’s whole-system health model
• The role of community pharmacy in prevention
• Resident doctors’ strikes and workforce morale
• Maternity safety, regulation, and patient trust
• How political instability impacts NHS decision-making
• oh and his beloved Newcastle Football Club!

This episode goes beyond slogans and gets into the hard trade-offs facing health leaders: money, workforce, culture, and whether the NHS can truly shift from crisis response to prevention.

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A special episode this week of the health and politics podcast, Prevention is the new cure, as Ministers finally publish the National Cancer Plan.

Steve & James talk exclusively to NHS National Clinical Director, Professor Peter Johnson, about the ambition which says 75% of people diagnosed from 2035 will survive long term and meeting the 62-days cancer waiting time standard by the end of this Parliament. In a wide-ranging conversation, they also talk wider cancer prevention, multi-cancer detection tests and the cancer workforce.

And Professor Johnson responds to today's story that testing menstrual blood for signs of cervical cancer could be a new and accurate way of screening for the disease.

In their look at this week's main news in health and politics, the former Ministers consider reports in The Times (£) which claim an 86,000 drop in waiting lists heralded by Ministers was achieved only by removing thousands of patients from the waiting list through a process known as ‘validation'. And they consider the political implications of the BMA's ballot renewal which could see further strike action by Resident Doctors.

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Co-hosts: Steve Brine & James Bethell

Episode producer: Calum Macdonald

This episode is produced as part of the Shortbread Media family of podcasts.

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Steve & James return with episode 82 of the health and politics podcast, Prevention is the new cure.

This week, to mark Stroke Prevention Day on Thursday, the guys talk to Juliet Bouverie from the Stroke Association about signs, symptoms and red flags.

And they look ahead to the long-awaited National Cancer Plan which is expected to be published next week. What can we expect from the first plan since 2018?

Also on this episode; the WHO confirms the UK has lost its measles elimination status, James speaking at the counter-fraud conference next month and NHS England is set to significantly enhance its bowel cancer screening programme, aiming to detect thousands more cases at an earlier, more treatable stage.

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You can email the team - preventionisthenewcurepodcast@gmail.com

Thanks for listening!

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