Wes Streeting admits NHS ‘hall care’ will not be fastened by Christmas

Wes Streeting has said he’ll look to the private sector to drive down waiting lists as he admitted patients could still be stuck in corridors at Christmas.

The Health Secretary said he was open to “serious proposals” from private providers as he battles to slash the enormous NHS backlog, which sat at around 7.46million in December. The Government announced that it had met its key election pledge to deliver two million more appointments in its first year early.

Between July and November last year there were almost 2.2 million extra elective care appointments compared to the same period in 2023, when the health service was beset by strikes.

But Mr Streeting said there would be no “victory laps” and warned there is “a hell of a lot more to do” to fix the NHS. “There are still massive challenges in the NHS, a hell of a lot further to go on waiting lists,” he said.

“People are still struggling to get GP appointments, and GPs are struggling, let me tell you, with the hard caseload they’ve got, and we’ve also got big challenges on things like ambulance response times and A&E trolley corridor care.”

Last month, the Royal College of Nursing warned that NHS corridor care had become normalised all year round and the situation was the worst it has ever been. Nine out of 10 of nurses surveyed said patient safety was being compromised as sick and elderly people were left on trolleys in hospital corridors.

Mr Streeting said: “I wish I could sit here now and tell you that, by next Christmas, there will be no-one waiting on a trolley in a corridor. I can’t make that promise, but what I can tell you is that we will deliver year-on-year improvement, and I’m determined to see an end to that kind of corridor care.”

He went on: “I understand why it’s there now, I understand what frontline NHS leaders are having to grapple with in terms of demand, but we must not allow that kind of care to be normalised in our NHS. It is not dignified and it is not as safe as it should be, and that’s why I’m determined to put an end to it. But it will take time.”

Labour has been looking at expanding the use of the private sector, with a new deal announced last month so more NHS patients can be treated in private clinics. And last week, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the Government should consider the use of private capital to fix the NHS’s crumbling buildings and infrastructure.

The Health Secretary signalled his support for more private investment, saying: “We’re definitely committed to using the independent sector spare capacity to bring down NHS waiting lists faster. We do think that there is a role for financial flows and incentives – that’s built into our reform plan as well.”

Pressed on whether hospitals would be rewarded based on performance, he said: “I certainly want more patient choice, more patient power, more patient control over where they’re seen, how they’re treated, the nature of their appointments.

“The NHS should be as responsive as any other organisation that we use, or any other service that we interact with. There’s a huge mountain to climb to get to that kind of NHS, and that’s why it’s important that we’re getting the basics right.”

Mr Streeting didn’t rule out using private finance initiative (PFI) schemes – where private firms built hospitals and repayments were made over the long term. But he said: “While I’m enormously proud of the record of the last Labour government, which delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in history, many of those PFI deals did lumber the NHS with an enormous cost that it continues to bear.

“So I think we’ve got to tread cautiously and carefully in this area. I think there is a role for private investment, but the terms of those arrangements – that’s where you’ve got to tread really carefully. But I’m open to serious proposals from the NHS, or indeed anyone else.”

Keir Starmer hailed the progress made to increase the number of appointments but said progress was still just in “the foothills”.

He said: “It shows what you can do with a plan that you put into action, working with doctors and nurses, NHS staff. I do acknowledge it’s the foothills. There’s lots, lots more to do, but it is important, I think, to consider the human impact.”