Health Sec Steve Barclay refuses to accept damming ONS report claiming 1,000 excess NHS deaths

11 January 2023, 10:22 | Updated: 11 January 2023, 10:59

Nick Ferrari wants to know what have the Tories done over the last 13 years with the NHS

When questioned by Nick Ferrari on Conservative failure, the Health Secretary refused to hold his part accountable for a shocking ONS report.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) released a report claiming that last year was one of Britain's highest death tolls ever - not including the pandemic.

ONS data shows a sharp rise in deaths towards the end of last year, with The Times reporting there were 50,000 excess deaths in 2022, making it the worst year since 1951, excluding the pandemic.

Nick Ferrari read out some shocking statics from the report and asked Health Secretary Steve Barclay: "What, for the love of God, has your party been doing for the last 13 years with the NHS?"

"Well, what I am saying is we don't accept those figures," Mr Barclay began.

The Secretary of state for Health and Social care claimed the figures in the report needed to be further reviewed because the "numbers within the population" have changed through the years as well as "conditions". Finally leaning on the fact that "we have a much older population".

"As a consequence of the pandemic people had treatment is delayed, we know people are still being delayed in terms of treatment... and that has an impact of excess mortality," he concluded.

Steve 'Barclay doesn't want to accept' that the NHS had 10 years of 'flatline funding'

Former NHS Trust Chairman Roy Lilley joined Nick later on in the show and said: "If you look at other comparable European healthcare systems...we have fewer doctors per head of population, fewer nurses, fewer beds, fewer diagnostics just about fewer everything! We are in the bottom quartile for everything.

"We haven't invested enough in the health service! And the story goes back to the Royal banking crisis and the ten years that followed the NHS had ten years of flatline funding...Barclay doesn't want to accept that because it was a time when the Tories were in charge."

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