The NHS is more than a healthcare provider; it is the British national obsession. Most of us take the NHS for granted until the moment we need it most. It employs almost 2 million people and consumes 20 per cent of our taxes, yet it feels like the National Health Service is struggling to keep anyone happy.

Today, we watch with a mix of bafflement and despair as a system that was once the envy of the world becomes a medical traffic jam of 7.5 million-person waiting lists, disgruntled staff, and ambulance queues that stretch into the next postcode.

How did we get here? What is around the corner for our health service? Still more importantly, is there a way back? What would that take?

In Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters, Dr Will Andrews—someone who has spent twenty years navigating the NHS and other health systems as a doctor, entrepreneur, and a healthcare expert for the likes of McKinsey and BCG—takes us all on a clear-eyed, and occasionally provocative tour of our national patient, prescribing 20 remedies - or operations - that would restore it to full health.

This isn't just another dry political or insider's post-mortem. It is a lively canter through a constructive cocktail of hard-won clinical wisdom and the kind of operational logic and pragmatism that makes world-leading organisations thrive.

The patient isn’t dead yet—but they are definitely in the ICU. It’s time to stop the sticking plasters and start the surgery. Read Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters.