Sajid Javid accused of having ‘nothing of value’ to help NHS after ‘worst speech in years’

Sajid Javid has been accused of failing to provide “anything of value” to help the struggling NHS after a speech to staff was branded “one of the worst in years”.

Speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo in Liverpool, the health secretary trailed a wide range of proposals and plans to rebuild the NHS in the years ahead, but rejected calls for further increases in NHS funding.

Mr Javid admitted there would be no “quick cure” to the escalating A&E crisis, and said the pandemic was the root cause of the NHS’ current woes. He also pointed to how people were now coming forward in record numbers for urgent treatment after staying at home during lockdown.

But the Wednesday speech was heavily criticised by senior NHS leaders and staff attending the two-day event on Thursday, with some branding it “hot air”.

They questioned how the government’s “blizzard of policy initiatives” will address the “fundamental problems wrought by years of underinvestment”.

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One senior NHS London leader told The Independent thatMr Javid “managed to say a lot without actually saying anything of value that sets out how we can get the NHS back on track”.

Another NHS chief from the capital said: “It was one of the worst speeches I’ve heard at Confed in years”.

Mr Javid’s insistence that further funding “[isn’t] the answer to all the challenges that we face in healthcare” was notably criticised by health groups.

“Growing health spending at double the rate of economic growth over the next decade, as I've heard some propose, is neither sustainable, desirable nor necessary,” the health secretary told NHS officials.

“I don't want my children, anyone's children, to grow up in a country where more than half of public spending is taken up with healthcare at the expense of everything from education to housing. That's not a fair deal for the British people, particularly young people.”

The Health Foundation said expenditure, despite recent increases, remains “below what would be needed to make significant inroads into the long waiting lists, invest in primary and community services, and put emergency care on a stable path”.

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Anita Charlesworth, director of research at the think tank, said: “If the NHS is to recover from the pandemic and become more resilient, it will need significant resources, especially as the number of over-85s is expected to increase by a third over this decade.”

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, echoed this, saying “the determination not to spend more” money, coupled with the “blizzard of policy initiatives” discussed by Mr Javid, will make it difficult to “address the fundamental problems wrought by years of underinvestment, woeful failures in workforce planning, and increased healthcare need. The NHS needs more people, not more policies.”

However, one senior NHS leader agreed that the health service “can’t spend its way out” of the current situation and needed to be more agile and innovative in the way it attempts to rebuild after the pandemic.

Mr Edwards meanwhile criticised the health secretary for arguing that the pandemic was the root cause of the mounting A&E crisis, adding that Covid disruption to social care services also meant hospitals were struggling to discharge patients into the community. “That has an impact on the flow of A&E, right through to the entire hospital,” he said.

Earlier this week, new figures from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine showed that, in 2021, an average of 1,047 people a day were waiting for more than 12 hours in A&E.

Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust, said: “The pandemic has made a bad problem even worse. The totemic four-hour A&E target hasn’t been met since July 2015 – long before anyone had heard of Covid-19.

“While undoubtedly there is a rebound of demand for health and care services and greater health needs coming forward, the government cannot hide away from responsibility for the difficulties we see in emergency care, and across health and care services now.”

During his speech on Wednesday, Mr Javid stressed the need to ensure the right leadership is in place at all levels of health and social care, and said the details of the government’s 10-year plans on cancer, dementia, and mental health, along with a reset of the NHS Long Term Plan, will be announced soon.

Despite agreeing with many of the ideas outlined by the health secretary, another senior NHS leader said: “There was no substance to his speech – it was just a lot of hot air.”