Streeting tells health conference: ‘The challenge is enormous’

Wes Streeting, secretary of state for health and social care, addressed UNISON’s national health conference on Wednesday morning.

He started by noting that he was the first health and social care secretary to address a UNISON conference in 15 years, since Andy Burnham, adding: “I’m particularly proud to do so as a UNISON member.”

Speaking about UNISON’s support for the Labour Party during the last general election, he said that the victory has “put into the Department of Health and Social Care three UNISON MPs who are working day and night to turn around our NHS and transform social care – Stephen Kinnock, Karin Smyth and me.

“Now we’re delivering the change people voted for. It’s not all plain sailing and I expect you’ll want to question, even challenge, some of the government’s decisions.

“For all the challenges we’re confronting – and there are plenty – nothing I’ve experienced in the past nine months since the general election have shaken my confidence and conviction that this will be a government that not only gets our NHS back on its feet, but makes sure it’s fit for the future.”

Southport attacks

Mr Streeting also spoke about his experience meeting with some of the health workers involved in the response to the attack on a Taylor Swift themed party in July last year. “For the staff I met, the trauma runs deep. But on the day itself, the whole NHS team kicked into gear.

“From the paramedics who first arrived on the scene, and had to make split-second decisions of who to treat first to give them the best chance of survival.

“The porters rushing children through busy hospital corridors and the security guards trying to shield other patients and visitors from the horror that the staff were confronting.

“Lab teams mobilising blood samples, receptionists fielding calls from panic-stricken parents, and surgical teams fighting to save those young girls’ lives – I am filled with admiration for their care, their expertise and their values.”

Referencing the far-right riots that followed after, he said: “If those thugs represented the worst of our country, our health and care workers represent the best.

“This government will never walk by on the other side when it comes to standing up against racist hate, intimidation of violence. Because no one should go to work fearing violence. Least of all, those all of us rely on for our healthcare.”

He went on to announce that the government “will act to keep NHS staff safe at work,” listing several measures including:

• National level incident recording
• Data analysis to protect those most at risk
• Increased duties on Trust boards to report on staff safety progress

Mr Streeting concluded: “Protecting staff from violence is not an optional extra. We’re making it mandatory.

“Zero tolerance for violence and harassment of NHS staff – campaigned for by UNISON, denied by the Tories, delivered with Labour.”

Recruitment and retention

Moving onto recruitment and retention in the NHS, Mr Streeting continued: “British taxpayers are investing billions in doctors, nurses, paramedics, and healthcare assistants, only for them to end up treating patients in Canada or Australia.

“We have got to retain the talent we’ve got in the health service and treat our staff with the respect they deserve. That means more training and opportunities for nurses who want to progress in their career, and making flexible working easier.

“It also means paying you for the job you actually do. So we’re bringing in a new digital system to make sure the [NHS] job evaluation scheme is applied fairly across the board, honouring the demand that has echoed down the labour movement for generations: a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.

“Campaigned for by UNISON, denied by the Tories, delivered with Labour.”

Ten-year plan

Speaking on the longer term plan for the NHS, the secretary of state said: “The scale of the challenge in the NHS is huge.

“Our job is twofold – first, to get the service back on its feet and treating patients on time again, and second, to reform the service for the long-term, so it is fit for the future.

“And I say it’s ‘our job’ deliberately. This cannot be done by one man sat behind a desk in Whitehall. We will only succeed if this is a team effort, from the Prime Minister to the 1.5 million people who work in the health service.”

Referencing the government’s plan, which is due to be published later in spring, he highlighted it would:

• Shift the focus of healthcare out of hospital and into the community, with more investment in primary and community care
• Bring the analogue health service into the digital age, arming staff with modern equipment and cutting-edge technology
• Turn a “sickness service” into a preventative health service, to help people live well for longer and tackle the biggest killers.

He told delegates: “I know how hard it must be to battle against a broken system, to give patients the best care you can, only to go home at the end of the day knowing your best wasn’t enough. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“My message to everyone working in the NHS is this: stay and help us rescue it. Change takes time, but it has already begun.”

Social care

Mr Streeting then moved on to social care. He noted that the government’s move to legislate to introduce fair pay agreements for care workers as part of “the largest expansion of workers’ rights in history, with Labour’s Employment Rights Bill.” It represented the “our first step on the road to building a national care service,” he said.

“And I can announce today that we will go further for our care professionals,” he continued, “We are introducing the first universal career structure for adult social care, setting out four new job roles, to give care workers the opportunity to progress in their career, with millions of pounds of new investment in skills and training.”

‘The best is still to come’

The secretary of state closed his speech by warning delegates of the situation which the NHS finds itself in. “The failure of public services to meet the needs of the people is one of the fertilisers of populism we see across liberal democracies.

“And as the NHS has been driven to the worst crisis in its history by the Conservatives, the vultures on the right have begun to circle.

“Without a hint of shame for her party’s record, Kemi Badenoch says there needs to be a national conversation about the principle of ‘free at the point of use.’ Nigel Farage says we need to change the funding model, move to an insurance-style system, and charge patients to use the health service.

“Conference, over my dead body. We will always defend the NHS as a public service, free at the point of use, so that when you fall ill, you never have to worry about the bill.

“The stakes are high. The challenge is enormous, but conference, the prize is huge. If we get this right, we can look back on our time and say that we were the generation that took the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet, and made it fit for the future, and built a National Care Service worthy of the name.

“Change has begun and the best is still to come.”

Mr Streeting then took questions from delegates around their concerns in the health sector.

Photos: Steve Forrest/Workers’ Photos

 

The article Streeting tells health conference: ‘The challenge is enormous’ first appeared on the UNISON National site.