Labour's Streeting says NHS uses winter as 'excuse to ask for money'

Wes Streeting told The Times the NHS was “the worst of all worlds, which is poor outcomes alongside poor value for taxpayers” but was “going to have to get used to the fact money is tight”.

He insisted the NHS should be aspiring to use systems like that in Singapore, where robots deliver medications, wash equipment and pick up drugs for prescriptions.

Critics have said Streeting is “quite openly and deliberately undermining public trust in the NHS” and has given staff “the most massive kick in the guts”.

He has previously made clear that if Labour wins the next General Election they would use private companies to tackle waiting lists, saying the Tories were “failing” to make use of private sector capacity.

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Streeting said: “I think people working in the NHS and the patients using the NHS can see examples of waste and inefficiency.

“I don’t think it’s good enough that the NHS uses every winter crisis and every challenge it faces as an excuse to ask for more money.

“The NHS is going to have to get used to the fact that money is tight and it’s going to have to get used to switching spend, and rethinking where and how care is delivered to deliver better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers’ money.

“At the moment, I think we get the worst of all worlds, which is poor outcomes alongside poor value for taxpayers.

“I’m willing to give people more freedom to innovate and create as long as they deliver. That’s the tough love that people can look forward to if I become the health and social care secretary.”

Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke ripped into Streeting on Twitter/X for treating NHS staff as a "political football" ahead of the festive period, adding that “destructive and demoralising comments” would hit “broken staff” hard.

She said: “When you [Streeting] insinuate to the public that NHS staff ‘use’ the grotesquely awful winter conditions we - patients and staff alike - endure every year to demand more funding, you are quite openly and deliberately undermining public trust in the NHS.

“Even more damagingly, whether you intended it or not, with that insinuation you've given NHS staff the most massive kick in the guts.

“Do you have any idea how hellish it is to work in an NHS A&E over winter?

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“I've seen the most experienced, tough, brilliant doctors in A&E break down and weep at the humanitarian crisis conditions of their departments in winter.

“Show some respect, please.

“The one thing we really, really don't need this winter is being treated as a political football by politicians who care more about currying for votes than the destructive, demoralising impact of their words on burned out, broken staff.”

Streeting has recently been on a visit to Singapore General Hospital where patients can order water and snacks and alert nurses if they are in pain using a bedside computer tablet.

Patients also receive a printed plan of their day at the hospital including timings for scans, tests and appointments.

He insisted the NHS needed to innovate more added: “The NHS is perfectly capable of arranging appointments in a way that maximises the convenience of patients — it just often chooses not to, or the system isn’t wired to think about that.

“I definitely think there is an institutional and structural problem in the way the NHS works. It claims to be patient-centred, but it really isn’t.

“It is not the envy of the world.”