Labour’s outspoken Shadow Health Secretary has blasted the NHS of using “every winter crisis” as an “excuse to ask for more month.”
We Streeting said that the public must “hear the truth about the NHS” and he has vowed to “Shake” the health system and “the public out of complacency.”
Streeting said that he is planning to bring back the family doctor system which will part of Labour’s reforms.
Speaking to The Sunday Times Streeting said, “I think people working in the NHS and the patients using the NHS can see examples of waste and inefficiency.”
Streeting added, “I don’t think it’s good enough that the NHS uses every winter crisis and every challenge it faces as an excuse to ask for more money.”
He then said that the NHS is “not the envy of the world, it is not delivering the quality of care that any of us want, and unless it changes, it’s not going to survive.”
NHS campaigner Dr Rachel Clarke slammed the Shadow Health Secretary and he accused Streeting of “openly and deliberately undermining public trust in the NHS” and giving the NHS staff a “massive kick in the guts.”
Dr Clarke wrote on X, “Do you have any idea how hellish it is to work in an NHS A&E over winter? How much staff give in those horrific conditions?
“How dare you insinuate they’re somehow ‘using’ those conditions for their own ends? Show some respect, please.”
Streeting said that the NHS will have to get used to the fact that “money is tight,” and should Labour win in the 2024 general election the healthcare system will have to “get used to switching spend, and rethinking where and how care is delivered.”
He said that as long as NHS managers “deliver” then they will have the “freedom to innovate and create,” Streeting added, “That’s the tough love that people can look forward to if I become the health and social care secretary.”
Streeting visited a Singapore General Hospital and said the way it is “designed around patients” is impressive.”
He added, “The irony is that in Singapore, we have a government that is seeking to move towards a family doctor relationship.
“In the UK, we’ve got a Conservative government that’s moved our country away from it because we don’t have enough GPs.
“The NHS is perfectly capable of arranging appointments in a way that maximises the convenience of patients – it just often chooses not to, or the system isn’t wired to think about that.”
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