New Health Secretary Wes Streeting has declared the NHS is broken, and announced talks with junior doctors in England will restart next week.
The MP for Ilford North said patients were not receiving the care they deserved and the NHS’s performance was “not good enough”.
But in his first speech as minister, he stressed that the problems could not be solved overnight after the health service suffered “the greatest crisis in its history” following the pandemic.
Streeting said: “This government will be honest about the challenges facing our country, and serious about tackling them. As of today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken.
“That is the experience of patients who do not get the care they deserve, and of staff who work in the NHS and see that – despite their best efforts – it is not good enough.”
The new Health Secretary made good on his promise to call up young doctors in England on ‘day one’ of a Labour government.
Health leaders have called on the government to resolve the long-running dispute with junior doctors as a “priority” after it emerged tens of thousands of appointments have been postponed as a result of the latest strike.
“I have just spoken to the BMA (British Medical Association) committee of young doctors on the phone and can announce that negotiations to end their strike will begin next week,” Streeting said in a statement.
“We promised during the campaign that we would start negotiations as soon as possible, and that is what we are doing.”
In England, doctors in training in the NHS went on strike for five days from June 27.
NHS England said 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations had been postponed as a result of the latest junior doctors’ strike. The strike was the 11th junior doctors’ strike in 20 months.
Young doctors in England say their salaries have fallen by more than a quarter over the past 15 years and are calling for a 35% pay rise.
Streeting has previously said he would not meet the 35% target, adding that if he gave in to the demand, “any union worth its salt” would come back with the same request the following year.
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He said there was “room for discussion” about pay, and also for negotiations on how to improve working conditions for medics in training.
The wave of strikes that has hit the NHS since December 2022, including strikes by nurses, other medical groups, physiotherapists and paramedics, has led to the postponement of almost 1.5 million appointments, procedures and operations, at an estimated cost to the NHS of over £3 billion.
BMA Junior Doctors Committee Co-Chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “We were delighted to speak to the new Health Minister, Wes Streeting, today as he made good on his campaign promise that JDC (the Junior Doctors’ Committee) would be his first call and get the ball rolling on negotiating a resolution to the junior doctors’ dispute. We expect talks to get underway in earnest next week.
“As we have always made clear, only a credible offer, acceptable to our members, can end this dispute and we hope that this will be done by the new government as soon as possible.”
Streeting made his comments as new Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed his first cabinet, Rachel Reeves was confirmed as Britain’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer and Angela Rayner as Deputy Prime Minister.