Wes Streeting to urge Government not to abandon his NHS reforms
Wes Streeting will urge the Government not to abandon its NHS reform agenda in a speech in the House of Commons on Monday.
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Speaking at the second reading of the NHS Modernisation Bill he drafted, the former Health Secretary will say that to continue cutting waiting times, the government must take on vested interests and win the argument for change and modernisation.
March saw the biggest cut to NHS waiting lists in a single month in 17 years, while Streeting was in post, and the government hit its target to cut maximum waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks.
Referring to the news, the Prime Minister and Chancellor have both credited the investment in the NHS.
However, overall funding increases in the NHS have been less than half of what the New Labour government provided year-on-year and below historical averages.
Streeting will argue that it is only because investment has come with modernisation that has put the NHS on track to deliver the fastest reduction in waiting times in the history of the service.
Read more: Battle for Labour: Burnham and Streeting hit back at Blair's savage attack on Government
He will point to changes he made to fund GPs to treat more patients in the community, the introduction of AI, and ending the use of recruitment agencies, as changes that were all opposed by vested interests but have made the difference.
He is expected to say: “Those who claim recent improvements in NHS performance are simply the result of more money are making exactly the same mistake that has held the NHS back for years.
“Investment matters, but we’re combining investment with reform: embracing technology, cutting bureaucracy, improving productivity and changing how care is delivered.
“That’s why we’re seeing more patients treated and better value delivered for taxpayers. That’s the difference between managing decline and delivering change.”
Streeting will also defend the Bill’s key proposals, to introduce a single patient record and abolish NHS England.
The single patient record will mean that patients’ medical history can be viewed by NHS staff when treating the patient.
Currently, different parts of the NHS are not joined up, so staff often don’t have the full picture. A paramedic attending to a patient having a heart attack or stroke are currently unable to see the patients’ records. Hospital surgeons often can’t see GP records. Yet the BMA has told GPs to withhold patients’ data.
The abolition of NHS England will put the NHS back under democratic control and is part of a reduction in back officeroles that will see an extra £1 billion reinvested in frontline care. The move has been contested internally and by health think tanks.
On NHSE, he is expected to say: “Abolishing NHS England is about cutting duplication, reducing bureaucracy and putting responsibility for the NHS where it belongs: with elected ministers who are accountable to the public.
“Every pound wasted on administration is a pound that could be spent on patient care. That’s why we’ve already begun stripping out unnecessary layers and directing more resources to the frontline.
“The Government must continue to face down vested interests who say this can’t be done, even as we’ve been doing it.”
On the Single Patient Record: “The Single Patient Record is one of the most important reforms of the NHS for decades. It is frankly unsafe as well as absurd that patients are still being asked to repeat their medical history every time they access a different NHS service.
“It is vital that this reform puts power in the hands of patients: giving them more ease and convenience, choice and control. We’ve got to take on the producer interests who think patient data belongs to them, rather than patients.”