Wes Streeting launches ‘warts and all’ probe into state of NHS

Wes Streeting has ordered a “warts and all” probe of the state of the NHS to tell “hard truths” about what needs fixing.

The new health secretary said the service has been “wrecked” by the Conservatives and launched an independent investigation.

He has appointed Lord Ara Darzi, a health minister in the last Labour government, to carry out the review and ordered officials to hand over whatever information is needed.

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Writing in The Sun, Mr Streeting said: “Honesty is the best policy, and this report will provide patients, staff and myself with a full and frank assessment of the state of the NHS, warts and all.

“It’s going to take time to turn the NHS around - we were honest about that before the election.

"Sticking plasters won’t be enough to heal it. It will require fundamental reform.”

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said frontline staff are doing “an incredible job, despite the huge pressures they face”. She added: “To deliver care to over a million people every day, but we know that they face huge struggles and patients are not always getting the timely, high quality care they need.

“We will work closely with the government, independent experts and NHS staff to take a detailed look at the scale of the challenges and set out plans to address them – this comprehensive analysis will be an important step in helping us to build an NHS fit for the future.”

It comes after Mr Streeting declared the NHS “broken” on his first day as Britain’s health secretary.

He went on to declare the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) is “no longer simply a public service department” but an “economic growth department”, because health and the economy are “inextricably linked” and improving the health of the nation can help to “drive the economic growth of the country”.

“That is a major shift in mindset,” he said. “It’s a rethinking of the role of the department.

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“It also means ending the begging bowl culture, where the only interaction the Treasury has with DHSC is that we need more money for X, Y and Z.

“The starting point has got to be, ‘We will help you achieve your mission for growth and improve the prosperity and lives of everyone in this country by making sure that we are with you lockstep in driving growth’.”

Launching the probe, Mr Streeting said: “Unlike the last government, we are not looking for excuses. I am certainly not going to blame NHS staff, who bust a gut for their patients.

“This Government is going to be honest about the challenges facing us, and serious about solving them.”

His comments come as a new report revealed progress tackling the NHS waiting numbers has “stagnated” and “long waits remain endemic in the NHS”.

Experts from the Nuffield Trust point out that Labour has inherited a waiting list for pre-planned hospital treatment of around 7.5 million in England – a 66% increase since the start of the pandemic.

While progress has been made in some areas, such as cataract surgery, waits for some major surgeries have been slower to get back to pre-Covid levels, experts said.

The NHS in England is to publish the latest waiting time data – the first since the new Government took office.

Lord Darzi was a made a minister in DHSC in 2007 as part of Gordon Brown’s attempt to form a “Government of all the talents” (Goat). His brief was to switch the focus from increasing the quantity of treatment – a task that had preoccupied the NHS for 60 years – to improving its quality. His report High Quality Care for All, published in July 2008, set out plans to tie the income of NHS trusts to their record on safety and effectiveness of care, and on patient satisfaction.

He resigned as health minister in July 2009 after two years in post. Lord Darzi then quit the Labour whip in the Lords in protest against Jeremy Corbyn‘s handling of antisemitism.