Given what is already widely known about the state of the NHS, I didn’t think much could shock me in the Department of Health and Social Care.
I walked through the doors of the department knowing the health service is going through the biggest crisis in its history.
Patients are finding it harder than ever to get a GP appointment, an operation, even an ambulance when they need one. NHS dentistry no longer exists in large parts of our country, and half a million people in need of social care aren’t getting any support at all.
Yet what I found on my desk in my first week left me genuinely stunned.
There are NHS hospitals which haven’t been inspected for a decade. One in every five health or social care providers have never received a rating.
Some of the inspectors examining care homes were overheard saying they’ve never met anyone with dementia before. Hospitals are receiving ratings based on inspections of just one corner of the building, rather than a proper look at all departments.
WES STREETING: Enormous trust is placed in the NHS and social care services. They are tasked with looking after us at our most vulnerable. As a kidney cancer survivor, I owe them my life
Wes Streeting with Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive of NHS England, during a visit to the Abbey Medical Centre in Abbey Wood on July 8
Mr Streeting (pictured centre) has warned of the ‘existential’ challenges facing the NHS (Pictured June 15)
Enormous trust is placed in the NHS and social care services. They are tasked with looking after us at our most vulnerable. That trust is partly based on experience – many of us owe a huge debt to the care of the staff working in the health service. As a kidney cancer survivor, I owe them my life.
But the trust is also based on the confidence that the right checks and balances are in place. This report published today shows the regulator is not fit for purpose.
This comes back to a political leadership that oversaw a conspiracy of silence about the true state of the NHS. The Conservatives didn’t think patients would like the answers, so they stopped asking the questions. Fewer than half the number of inspections were carried out last year than in 2019/20.
The denialism of the previous government seeped into too much of the health service. This government will be different. Our policy is radical candour.
On the day I was appointed Health Secretary, I announced that the NHS is broken. I wanted to send a message to everyone working in the NHS that things have changed. They won’t just get spin and scapegoats from their government any more. We will be honest about the failures of the health service, and serious about tackling them.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. If patients are being left unattended, unsafely on trolleys in corridors for hours because there aren’t enough beds available, I want to know about it. If they’re being treated in unhygienic conditions, I want to know about it. It will take time to turn the NHS around, but we will only write the correct prescription if we get the right diagnosis.
The National Audit Office warned this week there is a ‘growing mismatch’ between demand for care and funding, but said there was scope for better use of existing resources (file image)
WES STREETING: ‘The Conservatives didn’t think patients would like the answers, so they stopped asking the questions’ (Pictured July 6)
‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant,’ writes Health Secretary WES STREETING (file)
In the two and a half years since I was made Shadow Health Secretary, I’ve been inundated with frontline nurses telling me the Care Quality Commission isn’t doing its job properly. They aren’t inspected enough. And the inspectors don’t talk to them about what’s going wrong. Frontline staff don’t want problems swept under the carpet, they want them acknowledged and solved.
This isn’t just about patient safety. I want to reform the NHS so patients have much greater control over their own healthcare. Patients must be able to see whether they are getting the standard of care we expect of the NHS, and be able to trust the ratings for the hospital or GP they’re looking at.
I want to thank Penny Dash for bringing her important report to my urgent attention, and the brave people inside the CQC who gave Penny the ammunition she needed to come forward with the unvarnished truth.
I know patients will be concerned with some of the findings. My promise to them is that it will be the mission of Keir Starmer’s government to turn the NHS around, so it is once again there for them when they need it.
