If Wes Streeting did not already exist it would be tempting for those in charge of Labour’s general election advertising campaign to invent him.
On second thoughts, scratch that. The man who would be Health Secretary in a Starmer government sounds, on paper, too perfect to be true. Not the best start in life, grew up poor in Stepney, made it to Cambridge and into politics, survived life-threatening illness, you name it, Mr Streeting has walked the walk.
His memoir, One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up, was published in the summer to near-universal acclaim. Alan Johnson, who has done the health job for real and knows a thing or two about writing a memoir, called it a “triumph”.
Smart, articulate, hard-working and ambitious on a Blair-Brown scale, you can imagine Streeting getting on well with his Scottish Labour counterpart, Jackie Baillie.
For all those reasons, few would deny Mr Streeting has a contribution to make, a voice worth hearing. You can imagine him getting on well with his Scottish Labour counterpart, Jackie Baillie.
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What a pity, then, that Mr Streeting has recently come down with a bad case of talking tripe. He has been on his travels to Singapore and thinks he has seen the future for our NHS. But before he tells us what that might be, he’s in the mood for giving the institution and its staff a right telling off.
“I don’t think it’s good enough that the NHS uses every winter crisis and every challenge it faces as an excuse to ask for more money,” he told the Sunday Times. “The NHS is going to have to get used to the fact that money is tight and it’s going to have to get used to switching spend, and rethinking where and how care is delivered to deliver better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers’ money. At the moment, I think we get the worst of all worlds, which is poor outcomes alongside poor value for taxpayers.”
Among the ideas he has brought home is a scheme to encourage people to stay well for longer. “You can imagine what it would do for a low-income family if their brisk walks around the park several times a week to help cut obesity helps to earn them points for tickets to the cinema or a day out at a local theme park,” he said.
Talk a moment to look at that idea again. Can you believe it? It makes one think of those dance marathons they had in America during the Great Depression. Survival of the toughest. Health care turned into a gameshow. Points mean prizes and prizes mean a few more years with those you love.
In fairness, Mr Streeting has other ideas, including freeing up GPs’ time, which are worth looking at, but most of the proposed reforms do not have the look of game-changers. More like tinkering on the cheap. Whenever you hear a politician talking about apps it’s time to count the spoons.
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All told, if this is the best a Labour government can do to get the NHS back on its feet then God help us. Things are worse than we thought, and if you have been “out there” recently you will know how bad that is.
There is no shortage of statistics to show how governments across the UK are failing to provide a healthcare system fit for the 21st century. Waiting times targets in A&E, and for treatment in general, are missed so often and by such a distance as to be bad jokes. Le us take average waiting times for cancer treatment in Scotland. It is just one example, but it is the ultimate test of any health service that when the chips are down, life or death down, the system should come through.
The rules say at least 95% of people should begin treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral on suspicion of cancer. But as our health correspondent Helen McArdle reported earlier this year, that target has not been achieved since 2012. Between October and December 2022, just 71.7% started treatment within the limit. That’s a lot of people having sleepless nights. Bear in mind, too, that the clock starts only after you been referred, often by a GP, and good luck getting an appointment with one of those.
Statistics are invaluable but there is a place for lived experience too. I sincerely hope that you, or someone you know, have not had to be at the business end of the health service recently, particularly in an emergency, because the chances are you will have had a dreadful time of it. I have never known so many people so despairing at the state of the NHS that they are afraid of falling ill.
That’s a tough thing to say for anyone who owes the NHS a debt of gratitude, as many of us do. We’ve been there for the miracles, or what seemed like them, and the mundane stuff and felt eternally grateful to those who made them happen. Not all were “heroes”, but enough were when it mattered.
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What worries me is the way the decline of the NHS is being normalised, as if it was inevitable. This goes back well before the pandemic, though that has made the situation worse. We are being conditioned to think there is nothing we can do about it. The NHS is a money pit. Too big, too many demands on it, too late to change now. Better to downsize to something more manageable. Maybe make some enquiries with one of those companies that advertise on the telly. The ones where everyone is happy and healthy and never gets sick, or poor.
I don’t have the answers. A shocking thing for any columnist to admit, but there we are. I do know that recovery will involve more than daft point schemes and apps, and that while there is doubtless room for reform, the answer will come down to money. Always does. Decide something is worth having and make it so.
After all, if it was good enough for Attlee and his government … So don’t give up the fight so early, Mr Streeting. We know, to use one of your soundbites, that the NHS is a service, not a shrine. But if someone doesn’t stop the rot soon then no amount of prayers will bring back what we have lost.
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