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Landmark report reveals 'NHS cancelled more appointments than any major country' during pandemic, Health Secretary says
8 September 2024, 12:12 | Updated: 8 September 2024, 14:10
Watch again: Health Secretary Wes Streeting speaks to Lewis Goodall
Wes Streeting has defended the impartiality a top surgeon behind a landmark review into the "broken" NHS, telling LBC it's "depressing to see attacks on his integrity".
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Speaking exclusively on Sunday with Lewis Goodhall, the Health Secretary said that if Labour doesn't act now, the country will see "the NHS effectively going bust".
Streeting confirmed to LBC that he still believes the Government can bring NHS waiting lists "down by millions" in the next five years and stood by his "constitutional commitments".
He also claimed the report revealed the NHS was "so badly prepared and resourced before the pandemic, we ended up cancelling more operations and appointments and procedures than any other major country".
The comments come ahead of a landmark review into the NHS treatment of children - which is due to be published on Thursday.
Penned by leading surgeon Lord Darzi, the wide-ranging report is expected to reveal that more than 100,000 infants aged under two were forced to wait more than six hours in A&E departments across England last year.
Speaking with LBC on the matter, Streeting rejected attacks on Dr Dhazi's integrity, labelling them "disappointing".
Darzi, a top surgeon, former Labour minister, and peer, stepped down from parliament in July 2019 to sit as an independent following antisemitism claims within the party.
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However, his political allegiance is a point Shadow Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, highlighted on Sunday, accusing Labour of "headline chasing".
Speaking with Lewis Goodall, she said: "I'm hoping it will be a balanced report, but I’d say Labour and trying to find cover for tax rises coming in the budget."
"I was always up front that the NHS is doing well in some areas but we do need to improve in others. I was clear way the way we will achieve this is marrying reform with investment."
Hitting back at the Tories' "Ideological, blinkered approach" to recent doctors’ strikes, Streeting defended claims he bowed to the unions by agreeing to an above inflation pay deal to stop ongoing strike action.
The report's findings have led Prime Minister Keir Starmer to declare the NHS has been "broken" by the Tories in ways which are "unforgivable" during an interview on Sunday.
He also stood by his "tough and ambitious goal" commitment to reforming key areas of the NHS within a year, vowing to reduce A&E waiting times to below four hours, adding: "people shouldn’t be waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment" .
It comes as Sir Keir slammed the NHS reforms pioneered by the Conservative government in an Downing Street interview televised on Sunday.
The PM called the changes "hopelessly misconceived" as part of the interview with Laura Kuenssberg and blamed his predecessors for leaving the health service woefully unprepared for the pandemic following austerity.
"This is the diagnosis that properly allows us to see the state of the NHS," Starmer said.
It comes as its set to be revealed the UK was hit far harder by Covid-19 than other developed countries.
The reasons revealed in the report shows the NHS had been “seriously weakened” by disastrous government policies over the preceding decade, according to a wide-ranging report penned by leading doctors.
The review, commissioned for Health Secretary Wes Streeting, is also set to pinpoint falling vaccination rates, and rises in ADHD medication and in eating disorder-related hospital admissions for children.
As part of the interview broadcast on Sunday morning on BBC One, Sir Keir said: "Everybody watching this who has used the NHS, or relatives have, know that it's broken, they know that it's broken, that is unforgivable, the state of our NHS."
The health service was found to have reduced its “routine healthcare activity by a far greater percentage than other health systems” in many key areas during the Covid pandemic.
The Prime Minister claimed the health service's problems stem from "the money that was taken out of the NHS, particularly in the early years of the coalition from 2010 onwards, the (Andrew) Lansley reforms, which were hopelessly misconceived. And then, of course, Covid on top of all that, which has put us in this awful position for the NHS".
During the interview, the PM likened the job of sorting out the NHS to "building a house," explaining that "painting over" the damage that currently exists isn't the answer, adding "without the foundations" the
Admitting no one will be surprised by the report's conclusions, Starmer said he was well aware Labour "are going to have to be unpopular" to fix the health system.
"Popular decisions aren't tough, they're easy," Starmer said as part of the interview, adding the previous government had "run away from difficult decisions".
Sir Keir is also expected to pin the blame of NHS failings on the previous government, as he has done with the UK's economic situation.
"The last government broke the NHS," he will say.
The Prime Minister will add: "Our job now through Lord Darzi is properly understand how that came about and bring about the reforms, starting with the first steps, the 40,000 extra appointments.
"But we've got to do the hard yards of reform as well. And as I say, I think it's only a Labour Government that can do the reform that our NHS needs, and we'll start on that journey."
During the interview, Sir Keir will also face questions on the Government's response to the summer riots, the Grenfell Tower fire, the Government's claims of a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, his coming visit to the White House, and the name of the new Downing Street cat.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting will be on LBC's Sunday With Lewis Goodall on LBC at 10:30am
