London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – UK Health Secretary stirs claims that some patients confronting avoidable ‘death sentence’ due to current NHS declines.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has revived assertions that some patients are receiving a “death sentence” because of the issues with the NHS. He spoke at a health centre in east London, where he was undertaking the consultation on the future of the NHS alongside PM Keir Starmer.
How is the NHS crisis impacting patient outcomes?
Streeting expressed: “There couldn’t be a more critical time for us to have this discussion. The NHS is going through what is objectively the most destructive crisis in its history, whether it’s people working to get access to their GP, dialling 999 and an ambulance not coming in time, turning up to A&E departments and waiting far too long, sometimes on trolleys in corridors, or going through the test of knowing that you’re waiting for a diagnosis that could be the distinction between life and death.”
He contended that worse still, receiving a prognosis that amounts to a death sentence that could have been bypassed because the NHS didn’t reach pople in time.
Why does Streeting emphasize patient-led NHS reform?
Streeting also expressed the consultation was necessary because the best concepts for NHS reform would not come from politicians. He stated: “We feel deeply that the best ideas aren’t going to come from politicians in Whitehall. They’re going to come from attendants working right across the nation and, crucially, patients, because our adventures as patients are also really important to comprehend what the future of the NHS ought to be and what it could be with the right notions.”
Why are some NHS leaders concerned about morale?
The health secretary has employed the term “death sentence” before examining patients’ experience of the NHS (normally affecting cancer because some cancer survival rates are poorer than in comparable countries). It has been said that some NHS leaders don’t like this language because they fear it will deter patients and sabotage staff morale. But in his address to Labour’s conference, Streeting reiterated his position, arguing it was important to tell the reality because otherwise he would be “killing [the NHS] with kindness”.