‘Get on board with reform’ to solve NHS crisis, Streeting says

People must “get on board” with NHS reforms to ensure the health service is sustainable for decades to come, the shadow health secretary has said.

Wes Streeting told the Times Health Summit on Tuesday that he “did have to persuade people about reform” when he started in his role, despite being told not to use the term as “it goes down like a bucket of cold sick”.

He added: “I thought: ‘That’s even more of a reason to use the word reform.’

“Because not only is it about recognition that the immediate crisis today in the NHS can’t simply be solved with more money, or even a recognition that money is scarce, and that requires more focused choices.

“It’s also a recognition that if you want a national health service that’s free at the point of use, publicly funded through progressive taxation, you need to make sure that model is going to be sustainable for the decades to come.”

On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Government has “invested record amounts in the NHS” despite admitting he had failed on his pledge to cut waiting lists.

Mr Streeting branded the comment regarding spending as “worrying”.

“It is a sobering fact, to concentrate our minds, that we as a country have never spent more on a national health service and yet the outcomes and the crisis has never been worse,” he said.

“So don’t tell me this is just about more money. I am not naive enough to think that resources aren’t an issue.”

Mr Streeting said the “answer of more money” is something “that everyone finds comforting”.

“They wrap themselves up in the comfort blanket and think: ‘Don’t worry, the public will come to our rescue because they love the NHS,’” he added.

“You’ve got to get on board with reform. Because let me tell you, the public anxiety about the NHS is enormous.”

He added that he finds people “simultaneously believe that money and investment is an issue” but also feel “things that need to change through their experience as patients”.

“Even more reassuringly from my point of view, I meet people in the NHS at every level – the front line leaders and clinicians locally and nationally – who also feel that burning frustration that the NHS isn’t as good as it could be, and things need to change.”

The shadow health secretary stopped short of committing more funding to resolving NHS strikes if the dispute between medics and government is ongoing after the next general election.

When asked about the issue of staff retention in the NHS and a potential loan forgiveness scheme for newly qualified workers, Mr Streeting said Labour must “consider these issues right alongside the breadth and complexity of higher education, student finance” and public finances, which he described as “really tight”.

“There are critical choices to be made,” he added. “And everything that goes in our manifesto has to be fully costed and fully funded. And that’s really important in terms of our credibility and being able to deliver.”

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins was also asked about the idea of a loan forgiveness scheme for graduates.

She asked: “How do we look at that across the board in the public sector? Because we know for example, now police officers can often go through degrees as well.

“There are other parts of the public sector that do incredibly invaluable work. We’ve got to be able to look at the horizon, not just the immediate term.”

Ms Atkins said the Government’s NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is “trying to get the message out to the public” on issues such as apprenticeships for doctors and nurses.