>Wes Streeting says NHS must be reformed rather than ‘pouring more money into hospitals’In a stark statement, the Labour frontbencher said the health service is ‘still salvageable’ as he vowed his party could ‘turn the situation around’ in its first term if it was in government
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>Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said the NHS must be reformed rather than “pouring more money into hospitals”.In a stark statement, the Labour frontbencher said the health service is “still salvageable” as he vowed his party could “turn the situation around” in its first term if it was in government.In a speech hosted by health think-tank the King’s Fund, Mr Streeting said: “I think that despite all the challenges we see in the NHS today, it is still salvageable.”And, more than that, there is enormous opportunity in this country with the strengths we have in life sciences, technology, and with the brilliant people that we have working in the NHS today.“We have got to stop the obsession with simply pouring more money into hospitals, we have to think about what the primary care system looks like and if we grab that mantle of reform, there is no reason why we can’t turn the situation around, and to see far better outcomes by the end of the first term of a Labour government.”
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>The MP for Ilford North admitted he thinks it will take “a decade to get the NHS back to where it was under the last Labour government” as he blasted the Conservatives for having done so much damage to the NHS.Mr Streeting reiterated Labour’s pledges to train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses every year, as well as end the 8am scramble for GP appointments.He also pledged to make black maternal outcomes a “priority” after a report this week found not enough was being done to tackle the “outrageous” issue of black women being almost four times more likely to die in childbirth.“I’m not sure what’s more outrageous – the statistics that we saw this week, particularly about black maternal mortality, or the fact these aren’t new figures and yet so little seems to have been done about it,” Mr Streeting said.He emphasised Labour’s commitment to train more midwives but added “there are deeper underlying structural issues”.
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>Mr Streeting pointed to Keir Starmer having asked Baroness Doreen Lawrence to lead a wide ranging review into racial disparities and inequalities as evidence the party is actively seeking to address the issue.He added that he was committed to looking at class and racial inequalities across the NHS “to make sure that we do not end up in a position in the future that we’re in today, where your class, your income, or indeed your ethnicity plays a factor in whether or not you die earlier than your white counterparts or your wealthier counterparts.“I think closing that gap is the mark of a civilised society and the challenge for a Labour government.”
An interesting take regarding reform. I’ve heard repeat stories about the NHS spending disproportionate amounts of money on things that, apparently, don’t need money spent on them. I’m not sure on how seriously to take that – however I do know how risky talks of ‘reform’ can be. Look at the police across the country. Spent the past decade plus in ‘reform’ and all it’s done is made it worse, and they’re *still* in ‘reform’!
This is the bit that must happen:
> Mr Streeting reiterated Labour’s pledges to train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses every year,
Because staff reductions are one of the ways the Tory have been able to increase waiting lists in the NHS, that and eviscerating elderly social care.
I’d love to see more funding going into preventative healthcare, expanding exercise in schools to a daily routine and different options to appeal to all students that aren’t into competitive sport, like yoga or group exercise like classes the gym.
Easier access to regular screening would pick up issues earlier too, especially as people get older.
There’s a lot they could do, but let’s face it, we need more people working in the medical field, attracted by bursaries and good wages.
Yeah, why are we wasting so much money on *healthcare*??? What does anyone even get out of it?
Theyre just throwing away perfectly good money which could otherwise be used to provide good, hardworking Tory donors with extra income to line their pockets >:(
These hospitals aren’t even turning a profit! Talk about a failed industry…
/s if it wasn’t obvious enough…
God damn. Starmer’s Labour is desperate to pour cold water on every bit of hope I have for a better country.
We’ve been cutting waste from the NHS for decades now. Blair did it, Cameron did it, May did it, it seems to be continuous now. It’s at the point where we should openly wonder if there really is any waste left.
People can point to specific things and say “Look! The NHS spends £££ on this silly thing, obviously it shouldn’t cost that much!!!” I would say any waste left standing after multiple purges must not really be waste, but that isn’t something that’s easy to understand unless you’ve scoured the inner workings of the NHS, as both parties have done by this point.
What about pouring public money into private companies?
If, at some point, we decided that maybe not reforming the NHS every election cycle we may actually see some improvements. The targets are moving all the time so how can you expect a fully functioning national service when the way its managed is changed all the time.
Also. Fuck Wes Streeting. Its chronically underfunded.
I couldn’t remember which party this guy belonged to and had to google it.
Elephant in the room n all but: the NHS needs more money that’s for sure but just throwing more money at it won’t solve the problems, and in 5-10 years time we’ll be back to square 1.
How about they stop the NHS being used as a cash cow ! It’s no secret that the NHS gets charged through the nose for the things that they buy and services that get outsourced….
I bet if you got purchasing under control, you could free up a ton of money that could be spent in the right areas. I have no doubt there’s backhanded deals going on, just like what happened with the covid PPE contracts.
If you’re voting Labour you’re voting for the Tories
What we need to do is weed out corruption in our government.
Reform is needed. The single biggest thing they could do is to properly fund the care system and not use hospitals to park people that have nowhere else to go.
Streeting honestly gives me the chills. I hope the Tories get absolutely decimated at the next election but this guy really isn’t inspiring much confidence the NHS is going to be that much better off. Everything he says smacks of someone who has been paid off by the private healthcare sector. The major issue right now isn’t training more medics and nurses at Uni, it’s keeping the existing workforce and expanding specialist training places
There are genuine places this is true, like policing. But the issue right now is literally nothing but an inability to hire enough staff. The NHS is efficient to a fucking flaw- it’s almost impossible ta get help these days if ye aren’t sufferin summin debilitatin.
Just… urgh. This is asinine.
Underfund it until it collapses,
point at the rubble and say “look its broken”,
overpay your friends/donors companies to “fix” this problem,
yacht parties for everyone.
It’s both. It needs reforming, restructuring, and refunding. We don’t pay enough in taxes compared to the other nations we compare ourselves to, we ALL need to pay more, not just the wealthy (though they do need to pay their fair share, and some!). But there’s no point paying more if it’s not being used efficiently. Especially as we’re all living longer now and require medical treatment though our very long lives.
This is the same bS they always pull. Is there management problems yes, is there efficiency problems yes. Can they be compared to the massive funding shortfall? Hell no. Why can’t we do both, fund the NHS and tackle the BS.
Lest I sound like an idiot. The Tory party has been in charge for 14 years. Any problem with the NHS management is there’s. If they haven’t fixed it in 13 years, you think five more is going to do the trick??
Money is exactly what the NHS needs. Obviously. Money to pay doctors and nurses and other staff. The UK spends 18% less per capita on healthcare than the EU average.
He has a point. The amount of money i personally see spent on stuff is ridiculous. All because we have to use certain contractor’s that know they can charge what they want so inflate costs
It needs both. The NHS needs to be much more about preventative healthcare, improvements need to be made to social care, and more needs to be done to combat poverty and its effects on people’s general health. We need larger hospitals with adequate staffing, with staff trained to be the best in the world, and with access to top of the range equipment. More needs to be done to improve NHS research too. It does not have to be just one of those options used as the solution.
Up to 30% of patients in hospital should not be there. They should be in their own homes having care visitors, or in residential/nursing homes. This is the reform needed. He’s right that pouring money into hospitals isn’t the answer, he just needs to be more specific about the reforms.
I mean, he’s technically right, but I dare say their reasons for wanting to reform the NHS differ vastly from mine.
I want reform because I’m tired of seeing managers paid a band 8+ salary to do nothing but hide their department’s mistakes (usually through bullying and a culture of fear), and hire their friends and family into cushy jobs. I’m tired of being forced to buy consumables from companies charging rip-off prices just because the trust won’t allow us to buy from anywhere else. I’m tired of our NHS working like every trust is a separate business with its own interests to look after. I’m tired of our awful, grossly outdated IT systems that slow us down, making us less productive and more vulnerable to attack. I’m tired of equipment contracts going out to tender only to be given to the company that bids the lowest, rather than the one that offers the most suitable kit, and I’m tired of those companies sucking up to managers with everything from food/drink, to nights out and holidays. I’m tired of the poor pay, I’m tired of the terrible staffing, I’m tired of the blame and bully culture, I’m tired of the red tape and endless paperwork.
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Someone needs to go through the NHS, trust by trust, department by department with one goal, to eliminate waste and corruption.
Cutting is not the answer. The NHS needs to be properly funded and all private interests excluded. But let’s not pretend that an ordering system that doesn’t accurately describe items, and does not allow returns so that everything inaccurately ordered must be thrown away, is a good way to run the NHS for the benefit of patients. That’s not, by any stretch, the most wasteful thing that happens in thousands of wards every day.
SO works within the NHS and I sometimes bring up the topic of this. SO, and I both agree after very lengthy discussion that the issue with reform is that it happens way too often with far too many people that don’t actually work in the system putting forward ‘new’ ideas, that has lead into a system that has ended up being so disconnected with other departments. But we also recognise that both a restructuring in some aspects would be beneficial it doesn’t neglect the fact that many issues come from a lack of funding too.
Example being so will work for multiple trusses at a time. And each truss will provide a work laptop, however the information from one truss laptop can not access the information from another truss. This wastes money with essentially needing to provide multiple laptops, but can be solved by allowing the information to be shared across trusses. That of course can bring other issues into it. (But I’m just using it an an example where a restructure would be beneficial).
But where more money would be beneficial is that due to the nature of the work SO does, the department only gets so much funding to operate. This results in them needing to hire themselves out to other departments to gain more funds, but comes at the cost now being obliged to share their time and knowledge with different departments. So it puts more stress on their department. And those departments have to hire out to SO department because they themselves don’t get enough funding to have their own full time team, so they are forced to hire one or two individuals from SO department. Combine this with that the heads of those departments don’t fully understand SO department (that’s fair enough as they aren’t the expert for it) they end up asking people to do work that isn’t actually within their remit, and would benefit from a different individual that would be more apt at doing the work, witch (not to sound snobby) doesn’t require someone with the qualifications that SO has, and is essentially ends up being work a less/different qualified (and still very important role, again I really don’t intend this to come across that there are more or less important roles) individual could do.
Those are just two examples, and there are many more just within the area SO works in, and I’m sure there are many other issues. But it’s all to say, that if restructuring does happen it really must be based of information gathered from the people actually working in the NHS, and that more money is required but must be spent responsible and where it’s actually needed.
But remember this everyone; the are no simple solution to complex problems. And anyone saying the are, is ever lying or as an agenda of some sort. Just thought a share this, as to provide greater contex to a vastly complex issues.
Purge the private companies out of it, instantly save money
Really really look at the management of everything having worked in NHS I’d say 60% of managers are unfit to be there they just survived by getting others to do stuff or are the last man standing when a job comes up that and nepotism
Before Tony Blair went mad with power and Jesus and signed on to invade Iraq, people were actually *enthusiastic* about New Labour.
It wasn’t simply a case of “They can’t be worse than Major,” the renovation of the state actually elicited support.
I don’t know a single person who feels remotely optimistic about Starmer, Reeves and Streeting.
They’re just washed out photocopies of Cameron, IDS and Lansley.
Thoroughly depressing, and utterly enervating.
Reforms that respect staff could be useful but looking at comparable countries and given the UK’s demographics the amount spent on health seems a little light.
(Military spending UK 2.2% Germany 1.2%)
UK spends 10.15% of GDP on health
France 11.06
OECD 12.53
EURO area 10.55
Sweden 10.87
Germany 11.7
Australia 9.91
Japan 10.74
Spain 9.13
Canada 10.84
He’s not even in government yet and I already hate him.
Depends what he means by reform. On the surface what he says is correct we should spend more on primary care (GPs, community services) and less on secondary care (hospitals). Having to go to hospital should be an act of last resort with conditions being managed in the community instead. What’s contentious is how we get there. We absolutely do not need more private health services providing healthcare running the service for a profit. If he is delivering this policy in this way it is disastrous. Also investment in the NHS still needs to increase we can’t improve primary care to where it needs to be without massive investment. It’s not something that can be done on the cheap.
Studied history at university, had life saving operation with the NHS, and doesn’t support any of the NHS strikes. Seems like the guy to trust with opinions about the this sort of stuff! /s
32 comments
>Wes Streeting says NHS must be reformed rather than ‘pouring more money into hospitals’In a stark statement, the Labour frontbencher said the health service is ‘still salvageable’ as he vowed his party could ‘turn the situation around’ in its first term if it was in government
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>
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>Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said the NHS must be reformed rather than “pouring more money into hospitals”.In a stark statement, the Labour frontbencher said the health service is “still salvageable” as he vowed his party could “turn the situation around” in its first term if it was in government.In a speech hosted by health think-tank the King’s Fund, Mr Streeting said: “I think that despite all the challenges we see in the NHS today, it is still salvageable.”And, more than that, there is enormous opportunity in this country with the strengths we have in life sciences, technology, and with the brilliant people that we have working in the NHS today.“We have got to stop the obsession with simply pouring more money into hospitals, we have to think about what the primary care system looks like and if we grab that mantle of reform, there is no reason why we can’t turn the situation around, and to see far better outcomes by the end of the first term of a Labour government.”
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>The MP for Ilford North admitted he thinks it will take “a decade to get the NHS back to where it was under the last Labour government” as he blasted the Conservatives for having done so much damage to the NHS.Mr Streeting reiterated Labour’s pledges to train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses every year, as well as end the 8am scramble for GP appointments.He also pledged to make black maternal outcomes a “priority” after a report this week found not enough was being done to tackle the “outrageous” issue of black women being almost four times more likely to die in childbirth.“I’m not sure what’s more outrageous – the statistics that we saw this week, particularly about black maternal mortality, or the fact these aren’t new figures and yet so little seems to have been done about it,” Mr Streeting said.He emphasised Labour’s commitment to train more midwives but added “there are deeper underlying structural issues”.
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>Mr Streeting pointed to Keir Starmer having asked Baroness Doreen Lawrence to lead a wide ranging review into racial disparities and inequalities as evidence the party is actively seeking to address the issue.He added that he was committed to looking at class and racial inequalities across the NHS “to make sure that we do not end up in a position in the future that we’re in today, where your class, your income, or indeed your ethnicity plays a factor in whether or not you die earlier than your white counterparts or your wealthier counterparts.“I think closing that gap is the mark of a civilised society and the challenge for a Labour government.”
An interesting take regarding reform. I’ve heard repeat stories about the NHS spending disproportionate amounts of money on things that, apparently, don’t need money spent on them. I’m not sure on how seriously to take that – however I do know how risky talks of ‘reform’ can be. Look at the police across the country. Spent the past decade plus in ‘reform’ and all it’s done is made it worse, and they’re *still* in ‘reform’!
This is the bit that must happen:
> Mr Streeting reiterated Labour’s pledges to train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses every year,
Because staff reductions are one of the ways the Tory have been able to increase waiting lists in the NHS, that and eviscerating elderly social care.
I’d love to see more funding going into preventative healthcare, expanding exercise in schools to a daily routine and different options to appeal to all students that aren’t into competitive sport, like yoga or group exercise like classes the gym.
Easier access to regular screening would pick up issues earlier too, especially as people get older.
There’s a lot they could do, but let’s face it, we need more people working in the medical field, attracted by bursaries and good wages.
Yeah, why are we wasting so much money on *healthcare*??? What does anyone even get out of it?
Theyre just throwing away perfectly good money which could otherwise be used to provide good, hardworking Tory donors with extra income to line their pockets >:(
These hospitals aren’t even turning a profit! Talk about a failed industry…
/s if it wasn’t obvious enough…
God damn. Starmer’s Labour is desperate to pour cold water on every bit of hope I have for a better country.
We’ve been cutting waste from the NHS for decades now. Blair did it, Cameron did it, May did it, it seems to be continuous now. It’s at the point where we should openly wonder if there really is any waste left.
People can point to specific things and say “Look! The NHS spends £££ on this silly thing, obviously it shouldn’t cost that much!!!” I would say any waste left standing after multiple purges must not really be waste, but that isn’t something that’s easy to understand unless you’ve scoured the inner workings of the NHS, as both parties have done by this point.
What about pouring public money into private companies?
If, at some point, we decided that maybe not reforming the NHS every election cycle we may actually see some improvements. The targets are moving all the time so how can you expect a fully functioning national service when the way its managed is changed all the time.
Also. Fuck Wes Streeting. Its chronically underfunded.
I couldn’t remember which party this guy belonged to and had to google it.
Elephant in the room n all but: the NHS needs more money that’s for sure but just throwing more money at it won’t solve the problems, and in 5-10 years time we’ll be back to square 1.
How about they stop the NHS being used as a cash cow ! It’s no secret that the NHS gets charged through the nose for the things that they buy and services that get outsourced….
I bet if you got purchasing under control, you could free up a ton of money that could be spent in the right areas. I have no doubt there’s backhanded deals going on, just like what happened with the covid PPE contracts.
If you’re voting Labour you’re voting for the Tories
What we need to do is weed out corruption in our government.
Reform is needed. The single biggest thing they could do is to properly fund the care system and not use hospitals to park people that have nowhere else to go.
Streeting honestly gives me the chills. I hope the Tories get absolutely decimated at the next election but this guy really isn’t inspiring much confidence the NHS is going to be that much better off. Everything he says smacks of someone who has been paid off by the private healthcare sector. The major issue right now isn’t training more medics and nurses at Uni, it’s keeping the existing workforce and expanding specialist training places
There are genuine places this is true, like policing. But the issue right now is literally nothing but an inability to hire enough staff. The NHS is efficient to a fucking flaw- it’s almost impossible ta get help these days if ye aren’t sufferin summin debilitatin.
Just… urgh. This is asinine.
Underfund it until it collapses,
point at the rubble and say “look its broken”,
overpay your friends/donors companies to “fix” this problem,
yacht parties for everyone.
It’s both. It needs reforming, restructuring, and refunding. We don’t pay enough in taxes compared to the other nations we compare ourselves to, we ALL need to pay more, not just the wealthy (though they do need to pay their fair share, and some!). But there’s no point paying more if it’s not being used efficiently. Especially as we’re all living longer now and require medical treatment though our very long lives.
This is the same bS they always pull. Is there management problems yes, is there efficiency problems yes. Can they be compared to the massive funding shortfall? Hell no. Why can’t we do both, fund the NHS and tackle the BS.
Lest I sound like an idiot. The Tory party has been in charge for 14 years. Any problem with the NHS management is there’s. If they haven’t fixed it in 13 years, you think five more is going to do the trick??
Money is exactly what the NHS needs. Obviously. Money to pay doctors and nurses and other staff. The UK spends 18% less per capita on healthcare than the EU average.
He has a point. The amount of money i personally see spent on stuff is ridiculous. All because we have to use certain contractor’s that know they can charge what they want so inflate costs
It needs both. The NHS needs to be much more about preventative healthcare, improvements need to be made to social care, and more needs to be done to combat poverty and its effects on people’s general health. We need larger hospitals with adequate staffing, with staff trained to be the best in the world, and with access to top of the range equipment. More needs to be done to improve NHS research too. It does not have to be just one of those options used as the solution.
Up to 30% of patients in hospital should not be there. They should be in their own homes having care visitors, or in residential/nursing homes. This is the reform needed. He’s right that pouring money into hospitals isn’t the answer, he just needs to be more specific about the reforms.
I mean, he’s technically right, but I dare say their reasons for wanting to reform the NHS differ vastly from mine.
I want reform because I’m tired of seeing managers paid a band 8+ salary to do nothing but hide their department’s mistakes (usually through bullying and a culture of fear), and hire their friends and family into cushy jobs. I’m tired of being forced to buy consumables from companies charging rip-off prices just because the trust won’t allow us to buy from anywhere else. I’m tired of our NHS working like every trust is a separate business with its own interests to look after. I’m tired of our awful, grossly outdated IT systems that slow us down, making us less productive and more vulnerable to attack. I’m tired of equipment contracts going out to tender only to be given to the company that bids the lowest, rather than the one that offers the most suitable kit, and I’m tired of those companies sucking up to managers with everything from food/drink, to nights out and holidays. I’m tired of the poor pay, I’m tired of the terrible staffing, I’m tired of the blame and bully culture, I’m tired of the red tape and endless paperwork.
​
Someone needs to go through the NHS, trust by trust, department by department with one goal, to eliminate waste and corruption.
Cutting is not the answer. The NHS needs to be properly funded and all private interests excluded. But let’s not pretend that an ordering system that doesn’t accurately describe items, and does not allow returns so that everything inaccurately ordered must be thrown away, is a good way to run the NHS for the benefit of patients. That’s not, by any stretch, the most wasteful thing that happens in thousands of wards every day.
SO works within the NHS and I sometimes bring up the topic of this. SO, and I both agree after very lengthy discussion that the issue with reform is that it happens way too often with far too many people that don’t actually work in the system putting forward ‘new’ ideas, that has lead into a system that has ended up being so disconnected with other departments. But we also recognise that both a restructuring in some aspects would be beneficial it doesn’t neglect the fact that many issues come from a lack of funding too.
Example being so will work for multiple trusses at a time. And each truss will provide a work laptop, however the information from one truss laptop can not access the information from another truss. This wastes money with essentially needing to provide multiple laptops, but can be solved by allowing the information to be shared across trusses. That of course can bring other issues into it. (But I’m just using it an an example where a restructure would be beneficial).
But where more money would be beneficial is that due to the nature of the work SO does, the department only gets so much funding to operate. This results in them needing to hire themselves out to other departments to gain more funds, but comes at the cost now being obliged to share their time and knowledge with different departments. So it puts more stress on their department. And those departments have to hire out to SO department because they themselves don’t get enough funding to have their own full time team, so they are forced to hire one or two individuals from SO department. Combine this with that the heads of those departments don’t fully understand SO department (that’s fair enough as they aren’t the expert for it) they end up asking people to do work that isn’t actually within their remit, and would benefit from a different individual that would be more apt at doing the work, witch (not to sound snobby) doesn’t require someone with the qualifications that SO has, and is essentially ends up being work a less/different qualified (and still very important role, again I really don’t intend this to come across that there are more or less important roles) individual could do.
Those are just two examples, and there are many more just within the area SO works in, and I’m sure there are many other issues. But it’s all to say, that if restructuring does happen it really must be based of information gathered from the people actually working in the NHS, and that more money is required but must be spent responsible and where it’s actually needed.
But remember this everyone; the are no simple solution to complex problems. And anyone saying the are, is ever lying or as an agenda of some sort. Just thought a share this, as to provide greater contex to a vastly complex issues.
Purge the private companies out of it, instantly save money
Really really look at the management of everything having worked in NHS I’d say 60% of managers are unfit to be there they just survived by getting others to do stuff or are the last man standing when a job comes up that and nepotism
Before Tony Blair went mad with power and Jesus and signed on to invade Iraq, people were actually *enthusiastic* about New Labour.
It wasn’t simply a case of “They can’t be worse than Major,” the renovation of the state actually elicited support.
I don’t know a single person who feels remotely optimistic about Starmer, Reeves and Streeting.
They’re just washed out photocopies of Cameron, IDS and Lansley.
Thoroughly depressing, and utterly enervating.
Reforms that respect staff could be useful but looking at comparable countries and given the UK’s demographics the amount spent on health seems a little light.
(Military spending UK 2.2% Germany 1.2%)
UK spends 10.15% of GDP on health
France 11.06
OECD 12.53
EURO area 10.55
Sweden 10.87
Germany 11.7
Australia 9.91
Japan 10.74
Spain 9.13
Canada 10.84
He’s not even in government yet and I already hate him.
Depends what he means by reform. On the surface what he says is correct we should spend more on primary care (GPs, community services) and less on secondary care (hospitals). Having to go to hospital should be an act of last resort with conditions being managed in the community instead. What’s contentious is how we get there. We absolutely do not need more private health services providing healthcare running the service for a profit. If he is delivering this policy in this way it is disastrous. Also investment in the NHS still needs to increase we can’t improve primary care to where it needs to be without massive investment. It’s not something that can be done on the cheap.
Studied history at university, had life saving operation with the NHS, and doesn’t support any of the NHS strikes. Seems like the guy to trust with opinions about the this sort of stuff! /s