Streeting calls for national debate about smoking outside pubs

The Health Secretary has called for a “national debate” about the prospect of banning smoking outside pubs.

A restriction is being considered by the Government as part of a range of measures which will be set out shortly, Wes Streeting said.

Ministers are examining what can be done to help smokers quit and to “deal with the scourge of second hand smoke and passive smoke,” he said.

“We definitely want to see smoking phased out in our country, we committed to that in our manifesto,” Mr Streeting told Sky News.

“We want to make sure this generation of children are the healthiest generation that ever lived and therefore they will never be able to legally buy cigarettes.

“We are looking at a range of other measures to also help people who are currently smoking to quit and also to deal with the scourge of second-hand smoke and passive smoking, which is also harmful. We’ll be setting out our proposals on that shortly.”

Asked if he will ban smoking outside pubs, he said: “Look, that’s one of the measures that I’m considering, and I’m up for a national debate on this issue.

“We have got to do two things – reform the health service, but also reform public health, because we might be living longer, but we’re becoming sicker sooner and there is a heavy price being paid for that in our economy, our public finances and in our own health.”

Last week Mr Streeting insisted that he would make changes “with people” and not “to people” when asked about nanny state concerns, saying he is not the “fun police”.

Some in the hospitality industry have voiced concerns over potential plans to ban outdoor smoking, including in beer gardens and outside stadiums.

Meanwhile, Mr Streeting has also vowed that the NHS waiting list will be “demonstrably lower” by the next general election.

He told Sky News: “By the next general election, waiting lists will be demonstrably lower because I know that’s how I will be judged, how the Prime Minister will be judged, how the Government will be judged – people will judge us by our actions, not just our words ultimately.”

In his speech to the Labour Party conference on Wednesday, Mr Streeting set out plans to prioritise clearing NHS backlogs in the areas with the highest levels of people out of work due to ill health.

“Crack teams” of leading clinicians will be sent to hospitals in areas of the country with the highest levels of economic inactivity as part of a Government bid to boost employment.

Senior doctors will be drafted in to implement reforms aimed at getting patients treated faster in a bid to get people back to work.

They will start with 20 hospital trusts in the parts of the country with the biggest rates of economic inactivity.

Mr Streeting told Sky News: “There are nearly three million people in our country who are off work because they’re off sick, and we owe it to them to get them not just back to health, but back to work.

“That’s why, as we deliver our 40,000 new appointments every week, as we promised in our manifesto, we will also be sending crack teams of top clinicians, who have showed us how reformed ways of working can get through the backlog faster, we’re sending those clinicians to the areas with the highest levels of people who are off work, off sick, so that way we get the double whammy of not just getting those waiting lists down, but also getting unemployment and economic inactivity down.

“So it’s good for the nation’s health, but also good for the nation’s economy as well.”

In his speech, Mr Streeting reiterated one of the points from a report by Lord Darzi, which is that there is a need to prevent ill health in the first place.

He added: “We can only deliver recovery through reform.

“Without action on prevention, the NHS will be overwhelmed. Without reform to services, we’ll end up putting in more cash for poorer results.

“That’s the choice. Reform or die. We choose reform.”

Mr Streeting told delegates the NHS had been letting people down, adding: “It is up to us to prove that politics can be a force for good again.

“So let me to say to every one of you in this hall and to the millions of dedicated staff in health and social care across our country.

“We are the generation that will take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history to build an NHS fit for the future.

“We are the generation that will build a national care service worthy of the name.”

The Health Secretary has faced some criticism over the repeated rhetoric about the “broken” NHS.

One health leader told BBC News: “But there’s an increasing nervousness that if it continues much longer, it could spook patients and make it really difficult to raise staff morale. Hope is important.”

In his speech, Mr Streeting said protecting the reputation of the NHS must not be put above patients.

He said: “I know the doctor’s diagnosis can sometimes be hard to hear.

“But if you don’t have an accurate diagnosis, you won’t provide the correct prescription.

“And when you put protecting the reputation of the NHS above protecting patients, you’re not helping the NHS, you’re killing it with kindness.

“So I say, respectfully but unequivocally, I won’t back down.

“The NHS is broken but not beaten, and together we will turn it around.”

During his speech, the Health Secretary also hailed Labour’s success in “ending the junior doctors’ strikes” after an above-inflation Government pay deal worth 22.3% was accepted by the British Medical Association.

But the Government faces further questions over how it will resolve an ongoing dispute with nurses after its offer of a 5.5% rise was rejected.