MPs in the House of Commons groaned at Nigel Farage’s ‘two-tier policing’ remarks as Wes Streeting warned Sir Keir Starmer against injecting more public money into the NHS to tackle the crisis. The health secretary claimed that boosting public spending would overwhelm the public sector, emphasizing the need for reform rather than increased funding. Sir Keir Starmer, in response, declared that the NHS must reform or die, outlining plans to address long waiting lists, improve the nation’s health, and shift focus towards community services based on a report by Lord Darzi highlighting the serious trouble the health service is facing. Professor Sir John Bell also denied claims that the NHS is underfunded, stating that the solution is not pouring more money into the system but rather improving the efficiency of existing resources.
UK politics live: NHS report released before Starmer speech as Streeting says more public money is not the answer
MPs groan at Nigel Farage’s ‘two-tier policing’ remarks in House of Commons
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Wes Streeting has warned Sir Keir Starmer against injecting “more public money” into the NHS to tackle the crisis.
Ahead of the prime minister’s major speech, the health secretary claimed the solution to reform the current state of the health service is not boosting public spending as it “will overwhelm the public sector”.
Speaking from London, Sir Keir will declare that the “NHS must reform or die” as a major report on the health service is published.
He will set out his plans for tackling long waiting lists, improving the nation’s health and shifting the focus towards community services after a damning report from Lord Darzi found the health service is “in serious trouble”.
The rapid review, completed in nine weeks, diagnoses the problems in the NHS and sets out themes for the government to incorporate into a 10-year plan for reforming the health service.
The study argues the NHS is facing rising demand for care as people live longer in ill health, coupled with low productivity in hospitals and poor staff morale.
Key Points
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NHS not underfunded, says leading clinician
Professor Sir John Bell has denied Labour claims that the NHS is underfunded and warned the answer to the crisis in the service is not more money.
He told the BBC: “I think it [the NHS] is not underfunded to be honest. I think we need to get better at using the money that is in it.
“We did run a healthcare service for actually many of my early years when I was a practising physician which was profoundly underfunded and the outcomes weren’t bad, people did pretty well.
“But then over the last five, 10 years we have been pumping up the amount of money going into the NHS so when you look at it as a comparator, as a percentage of GDP we actually spend more money than Spain, we spend more money than Japan, we spend more money than a lot of developed economies that have healthcare systems that deliver much better outcomes.
“So the answer is not in my view pouring more money or indeed pouring more people into the system.”
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 09:00
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Keir Starmer promises ‘biggest reimagining of NHS since its birth’
(Twitter: @Keir_Starmer)
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:48
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Streeting: ‘More public money is not answer to NHS crisis’
Wes Streeting has warned that injecting “more public money” into the NHS “is not the answer” to tackle the crisis.
Ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s major speech, the health secretary claimed the solution to reform the current state of the health service is not boosting public spending.
During the media morning round, he said: “If we aren’t careful and we keep spending ever increasing amounts of taxpayers money on the NHS it will overwhelm the public sector.”
He also warned that it could “dwarf other areas of government spending and we will end up with an NHS with a country attached to it instead of an NHS with a country.”
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:47
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Atkins ‘very concerned’ about Labour’s NHS reform plans
Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins has expressed concerns over the government’s “first steps” to reform the NHS.
She told Sky News: “I’m very concerned by the Labour government’s first steps. We don’t know what they’re going to do with the long term workforce plan.”
Ms Atkins claimed the Conservative plan to build more hospitals and cut waiting lists would be scraped under Labour.
She added: “We all know that the NHS is struggling with some of the pressures that we see in our society, including the fact that we’re all living longer.
“We’re living longer with multiple conditions, that’s putting pressure on the NHS. But also wider societal pressures, such as the impact of social media on the development of some young minds.”
(Sky News)
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:35
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Does our technocrat PM believe he is above politics?
Keir Starmer’s growing impatience with the House of Commons suggests that, having come late to politics, he thinks he is better than those who have spent their lives doing nothing but politics, says John Rentoul:
Does our technocrat PM believe he is above politics?
Keir Starmer’s growing impatience with the House of Commons suggests that, having come late to politics, he thinks he is better than those who have spent their lives doing nothing but politics, says John Rentoul
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:30
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Labour vows not to hike taxes on salt or sugar
The government has no plans to introduce taxes on salt or sugar, the Health Secretary has said.
Wes Streeting told LBC: “That wasn’t in our manifesto and the reason why we are reluctant to go down that sort of route is because there is a cost-of-living crisis at the moment and I think we have got to get the balance right.
“And, crucially, on public health and prevention measures we have got to take people with us.
“So, I’m up for having a debate and listening to ideas from experts in public health, but also the public. We have got to have a debate about how we deal with sickness in our society, keeping us living longer but also living well for longer.
“The priorities we have are the ones that are in our manifesto, which are particularly around children’s health and making sure we are stopping the marketing of junk food at them, stopping the scourge of vaping amongst teenagers, for example.
“Those are our priorities and we don’t have plans for sugar and salt taxes.”
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:26
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British Medical Association accused of being ‘major drag on reform of healthcare’
Professor Sir John Bell said doctors in the British Medical Association have “been a major drag on reform of healthcare” as a report on the health service is published.
Sir John, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, told the BBC’s The Today Podcast: “There is a problem that the incumbents, who are the doctors in the BMA, have been a major drag on reform of healthcare.
“If you’re thinking about eggs you’re going to have to break – I’m afraid that the stranglehold that the medical profession is broadly to have on the way we run a health care system is going to have to be sorted.”
He added: “I think that the medical profession is locked into a way of life and a way of practising medicine, but they are deeply conservative, and they’re very hard to move to a different place.
“So, just wait until you start trying to replace pathologists with AI reading of slides. Moving innovation into the system requires not just push, it needs pull – and the guys who have to pull it are the docs.”
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:20
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What does the Lord Darzi report say about the NHS?
Lord Darzi has unveiled a review looking into the state of the NHS and inform a 10-year-plan for reform.
The independent peer’s said the health of the nation has deteriorated, with more years spent in ill-health. His report found:
There has been a “surge” in multiple long-term conditions, including a rise in poor mental health among children and young people. Fewer children get their vaccines and fewer adults now participate in things such as breast cancer screening.Waiting times targets are being missed across the board, including for surgery, cancer care, A&E and mental health services. The report says “long waits have become normalised” and “A&E is in an awful state”.People are struggling to see their GP and cancer care still lags behind other countries and cancer death rates are higher than in other countries. Progress in cutting death rates from heart disease has stalled while rapid access to treatment has deteriorated. The NHS budget “is not being spent where it should be” and too great a share is being “spent in hospitals, too little in the community, and productivity is too low”. Too many hospital beds are taken up with people needing social care.Between 2009 and 2023 the number of nurses working in the community fell by five per cent, while the number of health visitors dropped by nearly 20 per cent.At the start of 2024, 2.8 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness, with most of the rise since the pandemic down to mental health conditions. Raids on capital budgets have left the NHS with crumbling buildings and too many outdated scanners, and “parts of the NHS are yet to enter the digital era”. The report says the “NHS is in the foothills of digital transformation”.The NHS delayed, cancelled or postponed far more routine care during the pandemic than any comparable health system.Too many NHS staff are “disengaged” and there are “distressingly high-levels of sickness absence”. The pandemic was “exhausting” for many and the result has been a “marked reduction in discretionary effort across all staff groups”.Regulatory-type organisations now employ some 7,000 staff, or 35 per NHS provider trust, having doubled in size over the past 20 years.
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:19
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Streeting claims government going ‘hell for leather’ to improve NHS
The health secretary said he was going “hell for leather” to improve the NHS as he promised voters there would be “millions” fewer people on waiting lists by the next election.
Asked about timescales for turning the NHS around, Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast: “I’m going hell for leather to get the NHS back to what’s known as the constitutional standards, the targets it sets for itself, over the five-year period that we committed to, and to make sure that by the end of this parliament we see waiting lists millions lower than they are today.
“I hope people have seen that in the last nine weeks that we’ve been in, we have hit the ground running.
“Agreeing a deal the junior doctors are voting on creates the conditions in which staff can focus on getting waiting lists down.”
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:08
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Streeting vows to deliver schemes from the Tories’s New Hospitals Programme
Labour will deliver the schemes in the previous administration’s New Hospitals Programme, the health secretary has said, but it may be over a longer timeframe.
Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast that the government was reviewing the programme, but added: “In terms of the schemes that were on what the last government called the New Hospitals Programme, I am determined to deliver those schemes.
“But I might have to do it over a longer period of time because I’ve got to make sure, firstly, the money is there, secondly that the timetables are realistic and we’ve got the supply chain, the labour and the resources that we will need, and thirdly I’ve got to balance the need for new bricks and mortar alongside the need for new technology.”
Salma Ouaguira12 September 2024 08:08
Read the full story on www.independent.co.uk
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/winter-fuel-payment-labour-starmer-renters-rights-budget-latest-b2611366.html