New Health Secretary says ‘the NHS is damaged’ in first deal with

The new Health Secretary said ‘the NHS is broken’ in a candid address to staff on his first day in cabinet.

Wes Streeting, 41, said in a statement on Friday that Labour would ‘be honest about the challenges facing our country, and serious about tackling them’.

He added that talks to end junior doctor industrial action would be underway as soon as next week, while stressing that real change ‘will take time – we never pretended that the NHS could be fixed overnight’.

The MP for Ilford North, who has been frank about the ‘existential‘ challenges facing the National Health Service in the past, urged in a pithy comment that Labour previously delivered ‘the shortest waits and highest patient satisfaction in history’ – and that ‘together, we will do it again’.

Mr Streeting faces major challenges overhauling the NHS with the junior doctors’ pay dispute still haunting the service and technological inefficiency a recurring complaint from insiders – but experts say his previous comments indicate he may be the man for the job.

The new Health Secretary walks to Number 10 following the election results on July 5

Streeting has maintained major challenges face the NHS but is optimistic about its prospects

Mr Streeting (C) has warned of the ‘existential’ challenges facing the NHS (Pictured June 15)

In his first address as Health Secretary, Mr Streeting boldly acknowledged that the NHS is ‘broken’ – both for ‘patients who are not receiving the care they deserve’ and staff working in the NHS.

He pledged to ‘begin to repay’ his personal ‘debt’ to the NHS, having saved his life following a ‘shock’ diagnosis of kidney cancer in 2021, ensuring the NHS ‘can be there for us when we need it once again’.

‘I have just spoken over the phone with the BMA junior doctors committee, and I can announce that talks to end their industrial action will begin next week,’ he said, fulfilling a promise made in June to be on the phone to junior doctors ‘on day one’.

‘We promised during the campaign that we would begin negotiations as a matter of urgency, and that is what we are doing.

‘This government has received a mandate from millions of voters for change and reform of the NHS, so it can be there for us when we need it once again.

‘It will take time – we never pretended that the NHS could be fixed overnight.

‘And it will take a team effort. It will be the mission of my department, every member of this government, and the 1.4 million people who work in the NHS, to turn our health service around.’

Richard Vize, a public policy journalist and analyst, wrote in the BMJ medical journal today that Labour now faces a ‘stark choice’ over NHS funding, stressing that reform could not be made until Mr Streeting tackles the junior doctors’ pay dispute. 

The government has pledged to clear waiting times for elective treatment of over 18 weeks within five years and deliver 40,000 extra appointments per week across the system, but ‘none of this will be possible until Wes Stretting… resolves the… pay dispute’, Mr Vize assessed.

‘His comments demonstrate he will not repeat the mistakes of the bungled negotiations over doctors’ pay under Tony Blair’s government, when big rises were delivered without extracting commensurate changes in working practices or performance.

‘He has talked about a “journey to fair pay,” indicating that higher salaries and better conditions will be traded for more effective ways of working.’

Mr Streeting has praised NHS staff for ‘working as hard as they can’ in the past but urges ‘we cannot continue pouring money into a 20th-century model of care that delivers late diagnosis and more expensive treatment’.

While acknowledging he would not be able to cede the 35 per cent pay rises requested by junior doctors to end the strikes, he has shown willing to negotiate through the deadlock.

In a statement shared on Friday, the British Medical Association trade union for doctors opened the door to future negotations.

Professor Philip Banfield, BMA chair of council, said in a statement that he had offered Mr Streeting to “work together to get the NHS back on its feet” with the aim of resolving disputes, writing down waiting lists and improving the service for both staff and patients.

“We have heard your commitment to pay restoration as a journey and put our faith in your intentions to work together towards a resolution,” Professor Banfield said in an optimistic letter.

The BMA said a new contract would have to be ‘mutually agreed between the government and GPs.  

Wes Streeting leaves 10 Downing Street as cabinet appointments were made on Friday

Mr Streeting looks on as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks at a GP practice in Coalville

Wes Streeting was re-elected MP for Ilford North on Thursday night, continuing his nine-year representation of the constituency.

Mr Streeting attended the University of Cambridge before joining the Labour Party and has spoken openly about growing up in poverty in East London.

The Guardian assessed last year that ‘fans see him as a working-class boy who overcame his disadvantages and wants to ensure others like him have a similar opportunity’.

‘Others see him as just another slick Oxbridge opportunist with his eyes on the prize.’ 

Mr Streeting previously served as the Shadow Secretary of State for Child Poverty between May and November 2021, as Shadow Minister for Schools from 2020 until 2021, and as Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from April to October 2020.