We know that the NHS is broken: Wes Streeting announced that it was now the official policy of this government when he entered the Department of Health and Social Care. Today he had a chance to elaborate on just what exactly he thought was broken – and of course to point the finger at who was responsible.
It was his first departmental questions in the House of Commons, and like every other incoming Secretary of State, Streeting made sure he laid on the ‘Tories broke this’ line as thickly as cream on a scone. Pointing to shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins, he described the hospital building programme:
I once again say to the Opposition that they handed over an entirely fictional timetable and an unfounded programme. The hon. Lady might not know because she was not there immediately prior to the election, but the shadow Secretary of State, who is sitting right next to her, knows exactly where the bodies are buried in the department, where the unexploded bombs are, and exactly the degree to which this timetable and the funding were not as set out by the previous government.
He was talking about building new hospitals, but he then told Lib Dem health spokesperson Daisy Cooper that ‘the condition of the whole NHS estate is poor’ and that the backlog in maintenance was £11.6 billion, adding ‘that [this]is the legacy of the last Conservative government’.
Streeting also said that the quality of maternity care was one of the things that kept him awake at night, while his colleague Andrew Gwynne claimed there would be an announcement on social care reform soon (though he also did not deny the reports that there would be a cross-party commission on the long-term reform, which will make it even more long-term by delaying a decision). Karin Smyth, another health minister, referred to the ‘disaster of the past 14 years’ when it came to waiting lists.
As for those trying to fight that ‘disaster’ narrative, Atkins used her two topical questions to ask about the junior doctor pay negotiations, and about puberty blockers. She firstly suggested that Streeting had described the BMA’s 35 per cent pay rise demand as ‘reasonable’ – which he hadn’t, and then asked whether the Labour government would offer ‘certainty’ on puberty blockers.
On the latter, Streeting made clear that ‘we are wholeheartedly committed to the full implementation of the Cass review’. Neither of these questions were particularly difficult for him. This is in part because this is the stage where the government can blame its predecessors for the state of the NHS, and also because the Conservatives hadn’t really worked out what their own stance on the health service was by the end of their time in government. So it’s even harder to provide a counter narrative from opposition – for now at least.
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