In Northern Ireland, failing to address urgent health and social care issues results in tens or even hundreds of lives lost each week.
According to Matthew Taylor, CEO of the NHS Confederation, this is the case.
He said in an interview with BBC News NI that it is surprising that no one is doing anything about the fact that lives are being lost.
In the UK, Mr. Taylor is participating in a number of interviews and events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the NHS.
He claimed that the occasion offers a chance to consider what is working and what isn't in the health and social care system, as well as to consider the kind of future that people want to build together.
The local political impasse, he claimed, prevents this conversation from happening.
Due to the Democratic Unionist Party's protest against post-Brexit trading regulations, Northern Ireland has been without a ruling executive and legislative body in recent months.
Mr. Taylor argued that it is regrettable that there aren't more local ministers, particularly given the serious issues that Northern Ireland is currently dealing with.
The membership-based NHS Confederation unites, promotes, and speaks on behalf of the entire healthcare system in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The head of the NHS claimed that, from the outside, he has observed that while there is outcry when individuals are injured or killed as a result of political or sectarian violence, there is not the same response when lives are lost in the healthcare system because major health issues are not being addressed.
He claimed that the extra funding given to Northern Ireland in comparison to England was "justified," but as a result of the lack of a budget, local spending on health and social care is now below the national average.
.
