The NHS Alliance responds to James Murray's speech at NHS Confed Expo

Responding to the speech at NHS ConfedExpo by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, James Murray, the chief executive of The NHS Alliance, Sir Ciarán Devane, said:

"NHS leaders will welcome the secretary of state’s renewed commitment to working with them throughout the system to build on recent NHS progress with a continuity of purpose rather than changed priorities.

"Local health service leaders share his determination to maintain and accelerate those improvements.

"At the NHS ConfedExpo conference we have seen exciting examples of how digital innovation and AI can bring real benefits for patients and staff and can play a key role in delivering transformation.

"We welcome the health secretary’s encouragement for leaders to be creative and to get on with what works.

"As our recent report showed, they face difficult decisions and trade-offs as they look to balance tough performance targets and transformation goals with very severe financial pressures.

"They will need support from the government and national leaders in making those tough calls to allow the NHS to move on to the next level."