The Health Secretary today pledged to “wage a war on waste” within the NHS as the Government launched “a national conversation” on its future.
With a bigger, older and sicker population, the UK Government’s spending on the health service has surged in recent years, yet despite record levels of money going in, many struggle to get to see their GP, or languish on waiting lists (still stubbornly high at 7.6 million).
Despite the bad news coming for many in next week’s Budget, the NHS looks like being one of few winners, with a cash injection far beyond what other departments will see.
Will it be money well spent?
Wes Streeting, talking to me today on GB News at an London Ambulance centre in East London, said: “If the Chancellor is giving me any additional resources she can spare for the NHS, I owe it to patients, to NHS staff and to taxpayers to make sure that money is well spent, and also to make sure the money that’s already going into the NHS is well spent.
“And that’s why as well as doing the reform that’s needed, we’re also going to be waging war on waste.”
The Government plans to focus on three fundamental changes in its 10 year plan for the NHS, to be published in the spring of next year.
Streeting said: “We want to get care out of the hospital, into the community, the NHS, as much as a neighbourhood health service, as a national health service.
“We want to drive the revolution in the life sciences and medtech; a big shift from analog to digital.
“And thirdly, we want to keep people well. So a shift from not just treating sickness but preventing illness in the first place.”
And he wants your help. This afternoon he told me: “Whether you use the NHS or whether you work in it, I bet you’ve seen examples of things that are inefficient.
“You see examples of waste and you see things that if you were in my shoes…you probably shout at the TV, you might even be shouting at the TV now saying, well, if I was in his shoes, I’d be doing this or that. So tell me.”
An image from an NHS hospital
PA
The public can have their say at https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/
Cutting back on waste will include moving from outdated fax machines and separate patient notes at GPs and hospitals, to streamlining patient information into one central place on the NHS app.
It will also involve getting doctors to work more at evenings and weekends, both to bust the backlog and to use operating theatres and expensive tech every day, rather than them standing idle at weekends.
Given the reluctance of the BMA to such proposals previously, this is likely to be a challenge, yet when I put this to the Health Secretary he insisted: “NHS staff are crying out for change.
Wes Streeting
PA
“These are people who are really committed to the NHS and even more committed to their patients, and they’re ready to put their shoulders to the wheels with different ways of working.”
With bad news looming in Rachel Reeves’ budget next week, the government will hope that this focus on the NHS will remind people that Labour are committed to improving public services.
But they’ll need to succeed in cutting waste and improving performance in the NHS, and show results soon.
Otherwise they may find they won’t get the decade in power that this 10 year health plan suggests.
