The UK’s beleaguered National Health Service (NHS) was in sharp focus after publication of the eagerly awaited Darzi review on Sept 12, 2024. The review was commissioned by the new Labour Government on July 11, 2024, just 1 week after they came into office. Lord Ara Darzi, a cancer surgeon who undertook a similar evaluation of the NHS for a previous Labour Government in 2008, was charged with producing a rapid assessment of the NHS’s current performance and the challenges it faces. Prefacing the release of the report, speculation was rife in the mainstream media with commentaries about woeful under-investment in NHS assets stunting modernisation and exacerbating care backlogs.