“The NHS is in a fight for its life,” Wes Streeting tells NHS Confederation Expo

Wes Streeting warned that the NHS is “fighting for its life” during his keynote speech at the NHS Confederation Expo in Manchester today (12 June).

Speaking to healthcare professionals at the annual conference, Streeting emphasised that “major political parties have begun to question the very existence of a publicly funded universal healthcare system free at the point of need.”

“The NHS is in a fight for its life, but nothing I have experienced in my first 11 months in office has shaken my conviction or confidence that this is a fight we will win,” he said.

Speaking about the Spending Review, which was announced on 11 June, Streeting shared his belief that the £29 billion annual investment is not enough if it does not come alongside NHS reform.

“£29 billion – that’s a hell of a lot of money,” Streeting said, while acknowledging that many believe £29 billion pounds is “nowhere near enough.”

“The truth is both are right,” he said: “It is objectively a substantial funding settlement that puts wind in our sails. But investment alone isn’t enough.”

Streeting added: “There is no fix to the NHS problems that simply pours more money into a broken system. It’s only through the combination of investment and reform that we will succeed in getting the NHS back on its feet and making it fit for the future.”

He noted that “the task in front of us looks daunting,” but “if we spend that funding where it makes the biggest difference to patients, then the opportunities before us actually seem enormous.”

Streeting said that he was taking the opportunity to speak to the healthcare sector whilst the Spending Review was still dominating the news cycle.

He noted that, as part of the Spending Review, “the NHS received £10 billion to bring our analogue NHS into the digital age, with a 50% increase in the technology budget that won’t be raided.”

“I want to rise to the challenges that you set for me,” he told attendees.

“Radical implications” expected in 10-Year Health Plan

Streeting also confirmed that publication of the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan is “weeks away.”

Two million people have been involved in the creation of the plan, Streeting said.

He also promised that the Government “are not embarking on another top-down reorganisation” of the health service.

The healthcare sector needs to “work with us to ensure the 10-Year Health Plan breathes new life into the NHS – NHS version two,” he said.

The shifts outlined in the plan – from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention – will have “radical implications for services,” Streeting said.

“Much of what is done in hospital today will be done on the High Street, over the phone, or through the NHS app in a decade’s time,” he added.

He noted that the 10-Year Health Plan will devolve power to the front-line, and “create a more diverse, continuously improving health service that delivers better care for patients and better value for taxpayers” and that in terms of organisation, “the centre will continue to shrink.”

The plan will solidify the responsibilities of integrated care boards as “the strategic commissioners of local health services,” which will be “responsible for improving their populations health, closing health inequalities, and building the new neighbourhood health service,” Streeting said.

He also outlined plans to tackle the postcode lottery for healthcare with a “consequences for performance” strategy.

“The NHS was founded on the principle of equality,” Streeting said. “Whatever your background and wherever you live, you should receive first class healthcare based on need, not ability to pay.

“But the truth is that the NHS has never been truly equal. Across our country, we see a post-COVID-19 lottery in quality of care, and the poorest services are often found in the poorest communities.”

Streeting called the situation “an affront to the values the NHS was built on.”

He also detailed plans to modernise the Foundation Trust model, with “incentives, freedoms, flexibilities from central control for local providers delivering a quality service” to be outlined in the plan.

“This will be a reinvention of Foundation Trust for the modern age,” Streeting said, adding that trusts will “only succeed if they collaborate with community and mental health providers and GPS focus on outcomes, not activity.”

This will help drive the shift from hospital to community care and improve population health, he believes.

Streeting added that “radical devolution” of healthcare will “go all the way down to the patient” and that “there has to be transparency of quality outcomes and patient experience at every level.”

He also emphasised that “no one part of the NHS has a monopoly on good ideas.”

Streeting also revealed that the Government will use financial incentives to invest further in public health outcomes, rather than in activity that reacts to sickness.

“Resources will be tied to outcome-based targets, which all commissioners and providers will have a responsibility to help meet,” he said.

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