Key Summary
- He said to "get the NHS out of the hole" his government has been seeking across the board improvement.
- "We’ve invested £600 million more in community pharmacy and given them greater powers to monitor and manage patients with ongoing conditions."
- Streeting said, "Corridor care is not normal, it is not acceptable, it should never be tolerated, and I am determined to end it."
Health secretary Wes Streeting has lauded the NHS staff for putting the healthcare services back on road to recovery and proved "the doubters and doomsters wrong", but reminded that challenges like corridor care remain.
While addressing the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's (RCEM) Annual Conference in Birmingham on Thursday (30), he commended them for "achieving something we’ve not seen for a long time, an NHS that is improving."
"This government set you ambitious targets last year. And despite resident doctors’ strikes and record demand, you rose to the challenge," he said.
He noted that the NHS has achieved the best 4-hour performance in A&E in 5 years. "Today, almost 4 in 5 patients are seen within 4 hours and 500,000 more people than last year are being seen on time.
"Ambulances are arriving faster than for half a decade. For suspected heart attacks and stroke patients, we’re reaching them five minutes faster than last year," he added.
Streeting said the NHS has disproved the "think tank orthodoxy" by cutting down on waiting lists.
He said the ambulance recovery "isn’t happening by accident, if you excuse the pun. It is happening because the ambulance service is embracing change.
"Where paramedics would once provide extraordinary care on the scene, then take their patient to hospital, now they’re using their skills to act as coordinators of care.
"Providing the same world-class urgent, on-the-spot care they always have, then deciding the best place for follow-up treatment, which isn’t always a hospital.
"The result is improved turnaround and handover times, and fewer people ending up in A&E."
Lessening A&E burden
Streeting pointed out that "the NHS is not just a service, it’s a system. And when part of the system has broken down, people end up at your door.
"It’s why A&E had gone from Accident & Emergency to Anything & Everything."
He said to "get the NHS out of the hole" his government has been seeking across the board improvement. "A rising tide that lifts all ships."
The health secretary said, despite tight public finances, his government has invested £26 billion a year in the NHS.
"It shows what this government’s priority is.
"But you and I know that the additional funding alone cannot buy our way to recovery. It has to be accompanied by change and modernisation."
However, he pointed out that the Iran war is having grave consequences for the global economy.
"I’m afraid I can’t play the Oliver Twist of the Cabinet, pleading for more from the Treasury. Not because the Chancellor is Scrooge – to invoke another Dickens character – but because there isn’t any."
He said the new investment needs to be matched with change and modernisation to help that investment go further.
"You in emergency medicine are leading the way and showing that change is possible. Ambulance services are providing more paramedic-led care at the scene."
10-year plan
Streeting said the 10 Year Plan for Health set the NHS on course to become "as much a Neighbourhood Health Service as a National Health Service".
"Our modernisation agenda is all about catching patients earlier, treating them faster, and preventing them falling ill in the first place."
He pointed out that his government has recruited 2,000 more GPs and patients can now request appointments online.
"We’ve invested £600 million more in community pharmacy and given them greater powers to monitor and manage patients with ongoing conditions."
Corridor care
He termed corridor care as the "most visible, most distressing symptom of the pressures in our NHS."
"And since emergency departments are the frontline of the NHS and most people’s first impression of a hospital, you’re in the full glare of the public spotlight – and often used as the barometer for how the service is doing overall. I know this will be a test the government is judged against."
Streeting said, "Corridor care is not normal, it is not acceptable, it should never be tolerated, and I am determined to end it.
"We’re calling it what it is; we’ve defined it; we’re measuring it; and with your help, we’re finally getting on top of it.
"Once again, change is being led from below."
He said success has come when "we’ve moved as a pack, working together, driven by a simple but powerful conviction that we will not accept the status quo anymore."
However, he cautioned that it is not easy. "We are having to rebuild the plane mid-flight. There are times when it is a bumpy ride.
"If we’re getting things wrong, I want to hear about it. If something’s not working, we need to know."
