Wes Streeting MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 19 Nov 2024 · Primary Care: Patient Access · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right that many of the pressures on our hospitals, such as the Princess Alexandra in Harlow, are a result of pressures in other parts of the health and social care system. It is outrageous that the biggest reason for five to nine-year-olds presenting to hospital is tooth decay, which is why we need to get NHS dentistry back on its feet, along with the rest of the NHS. My hon. Friend the Minister for Care and I have regularly met the British Dental Association since the general election to consider how the dental contract can be reformed to retain dentists and rebuild NHS dental services.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Primary Care: Patient Access · Hansard source

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  The Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee is right that investment is vital, but so is reform. We tasked ICBs with leading the development of the new neighbourhood health service. We are removing their responsibility for performance management of trusts in order to free up their focus, so that primary and community services have the attention that is desperately needed. In the coming weeks, we will be talking to the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners about how we ensure the investment announced by the Chancellor leads to improved patient care and a reformed neighbourhood health service.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Primary Care: Patient Access · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is right. Last weekend, I was up in Middlesbrough with local Members, where we saw a great example of hospital at home delivered by the community nursing team and the community health trust. We have to do a lot more in that space to ensure we provide care closer to peoples’ homes—indeed, often in the home—keeping them out of hospital and close to home, which is better for them and better value for the taxpayer.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Primary Care: Patient Access · Hansard source

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  I was terribly impolite; I should have welcomed the shadow Minister to his place in response to his first question. Conservative Members seem to welcome the £26 billion investment and are happy to tell us how it should be spent, but they oppose the means of raising it. They cannot do all those things. They need to be honest with the country: either they support the investment in the NHS or they say they would cut it. Which is it?

• 19 Nov 2024 · Primary Care: Patient Access · Hansard source

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  I can reassure health and care providers that we will be setting out allocations long before April next year. I recognise that people need to plan ahead of the new financial year. When deciding allocations, we take into account the range of pressures on different parts of the system. People have heard what I have said already about the need to shift out of hospital into primary and community services. The shadow Minister talks about choices; Conservative Members seem to welcome the £26 billion investment, but oppose the means of raising it. I am afraid they cannot do both. If they support the investment, they need to support the way in which we raise the money; if they do not support the way in which we raise the money, they need to spell out how they would raise it or be honest about the fact that if they were still in government, they would continue to preside over a mismanaged decline.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Autumn Budget Impact · Hansard source

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  I know, not least because of the mismanagement of the NHS during the last 14 years, that communities right across the country, including the hon. Gentleman’s constituents in Solihull, are struggling with poor services and crumbling estates. We would be happy to receive representations from him, but he has to level with his constituents. If he wants money to be spent in his community, he must support the investment and be honest about the fact that he supports the means of raising it. If he does not support the means of raising it, he should tell us where that investment would come from.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Autumn Budget Impact · Hansard source

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  Thanks to the decisions that the Chancellor took in the Budget, we are able to provide an additional £26 billion to give the NHS the funding it needs. This will support the NHS in England, enabling it to deliver an extra 40,000 appointments a week to cut waiting lists. Of course, for my hon. Friend and her constituents, the Budget has given Scotland the biggest real-terms increase in funding through the Barnett formula since devolution began. I hope the Scottish Government will use that investment to deliver improved services for the Scottish people.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Autumn Budget Impact · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her question. It is thanks to the people of Scotland sending 37 Labour Members of Parliament here at the last election—not only have they shown that they value the NHS and are demanding change, but they voted for change—that we are now delivering that change through the Budget. I say to Scottish Government Ministers that, as they know, I said before the election that all roads lead to Westminster and that we all suffered under the Conservative Government, but this year that road is carrying an extra £1.5 billion to the Scottish Government and next year it will carry an extra £3.4 billion to the Scottish Government, so they have no excuse not to act.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Opt-out HIV testing has been a great success so far. Of course, we will make further announcements on its future in due course. I would like to say, as a former member of the HIV commission that made the representations to the previous Government, that he has me at a real advantage—or disadvantage, depending on the side of the spending fence. I very much welcomed the approach taken by the previous Government, which this Government plan to continue.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I might resist the invitation to give a specific date today, but the hon. Gentleman makes a valuable point about the ease of use of the NHS app, and I will write to him further on that point.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the question and pay tribute to the work being done by Guy’s and St Thomas’. He is right to raise cyber-security. That is why the capital investment announced by the Chancellor is welcome and necessary, and joint working across Government, including with security colleagues and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, is vital to keep patients’ data and information safe and to keep critical systems running.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for the steps that my hon. Friend is taking to make representations on behalf of her local children’s hospice, both on the Floor of the House and outside the Chamber. I recognise the pressure she describes. We are determined to help hospices to overcome them.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  This Government are prepared for winter and we are already standing up the operational response to winter pressures. On funding, the right hon. Gentleman was in government just before the general election. Is he saying that his Government did not provide enough funding for the NHS this winter? If not, why not? If he does accept that it is enough money, he will surely welcome the extra investment that the Chancellor is putting into the NHS from next year.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We have not yet announced allocations for general practice for the year ahead, and we are taking into account all the pressures that general practice is under.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. That is a good example of why investment needs to be matched with reform to speed things up, improve productivity and get staff to the frontline, where they want to be.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. The Royal Free hospital saved my life when I went through kidney cancer, so it holds a special place in my heart. Thanks to the Chancellor’s decision and the investment she put into the NHS at the Budget, and the reform my Department is delivering, we will deliver the change and improvement that his constituents and mine, and the rest of the country, deserve.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I would say to GPs who are thinking about staffing for the next financial year that they should hold tight and wait for funding allocations shortly, so that they can make informed decisions about staffing and care for patients.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  It is thanks to this Government and the action we have taken that, for the first time in three years, we go into winter without the spectre of national strikes looming over the NHS, and with NHS staff on the frontline not the picket line. It is thanks to the priority this Government have given to prevention that we have already delivered almost 15 million covid-19 and flu vaccinations, alongside the new RSV—respiratory syncytial virus—vaccination to help vulnerable groups for the first time. The shadow Secretary of State mentions the winter fuel allowance. This Government are protecting support for the poorest pensioners to protect them not just this winter, but every winter, and over the coming years the value of the pension will of course rise with the cost of living.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend the Minister for Secondary Care said, the wait for women with common conditions such as endometriosis is far too long. That is why we are taking steps to cut waiting times and stop the merry-go-round of repeat visits to the same clinician to get the same answer, until someone finally listens to what a woman has to say.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is welcome to make representations to the Department for the capital investment that he is calling for, but he should welcome the means of providing it, which was the Chancellor’s decision in the Budget.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We all know that general practice is under enormous pressure, and that will be a big part of this Government’s agenda. I reassure my hon. Friend that our view is that there should be patient choice, patient control and different courses for different horses. I value online and over-the-phone appointments, but they will not be right for everyone on every occasion. Patients should have a voice and a say.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  That would be a matter for the right hon. Gentleman’s ICB. I know that he is new to the area, so I am happy to make some introductions.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am in no doubt about the state that general practice was left in by our Conservative predecessors. That is why, in making decisions about funding allocations for the year ahead, we are taking into account all the pressures that general practice is under, as we clean up the mess left by the Conservatives.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Indeed there has. Medical associate roles can and do play a valuable role in freeing up other clinicians’ time to do the things that only they can do, but there are legitimate concerns within the professions about scope of practice, doctor substitution and transparency for patients. We need to grip that and address it. We will have a further announcement to make about that shortly.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  This weekend, we launched the first in-person consultation as part of change.nhs.uk, the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS we have ever seen. We know that the Leader of the Opposition wants a conversation about whether the NHS is free at the point of use, and I can tell her, from that first conversation, that no one agreed with her.