Andrew Marr: 'Could the government's plan for the NHS be the short-term fix we desperately need?'
30 January 2023, 18:14
.＠AndrewMarr9 reacts to the Health Secretary's emergency plan to deal with the NHS crisis
The government's new emergency care plan to deal with the hospital crisis is the closest we have seen to a national plan that could get the NHS "working better in the short term", Andrew Marr has said.
Speaking on LBC's Tonight With Andrew Marr on Monday, the presenter said the government's plan is remarkably similar to the Labour Party's plans, as well those suggested by independent experts.
It comes as the government announced its two-year plan for emergency care, which it says will see NHS hospitals provided with 5,000 extra beds and 800 new ambulances.
But before praising the government's emergency plan, Andrew first bemoaned the lack of consensus between Britain's two main parties, arguing this could help the NHS crisis.
Andrew said: "Wouldn't it be nice if, just for once, the main parties could actually agree on how to solve a big problem facing Britain? Wouldn't it be even better if some kind of plan to get the solving going was then announced?
"Well, I don't want to get you over-excited and this might be over-egging things, but today the Health Secretary Stephen Barclay came up with an emergency plan to deal with the hospitals crisis in the NHS which is pretty similar, frankly, to Labour plans and pretty similar to ideas put out by independent experts, not least on this programme.
"At its heart are 5,000 extra hospital beds and 800 new ambulances as well as a plan for treating more people at home so they never get to hospital in the first place."
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Andrew continued: "Hold on, you might say, there is no chance of getting a better NHS until you solve the starting problem – until you pay the nurses, the paramedics and junior doctors better and I absolutely, 100% agree with you. Pay the nurses.
"But alongside that we need some kind of national plan about getting the system working better in the short term, and this is as close as we've come.
"It doesn't solve the Tories problems - Rishi Sunak was trying to celebrate the plan as a hospital in the North East but had to spend most of his time hopping around on one leg trying to unstick the Nadhim Zahawi scandal from the sole of his shoe."
Mr Zahawi was sacked as Tory party chairman after a row about his tax affairs.
Mr Sunak ordered his ethics adviser to investigate Mr Zahawi, who briefly served as chancellor last year, over an estimated £4.8m bill he settled with HMRC during his time running the Treasury.
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Andrew finished off: "The latest polling both shows Mr Sunak at minus 29 in the polls and shows Labour a clear 24 points ahead overall.
"But there's no point in calling for action on the NHS crisis and then just booing when along it comes."
