Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been grilled over the NHS's performance after outcomes were found to have worsened despite spending on Britain's health service rising.
Pointing out that surgeons performed fewer operations between 2019 and 2023, GB News' Political Editor Christopher Hope questioned why spending rose by 2.8 per cent annually between 2015-16 and 2022-23.
"Why is it we take more money into this leaky bucket, and it's not getting any better?" Hope asked.
"That is exactly the right question," Streeting responded, admitting that while more money and staff had been added, reform was lacking.
Wes Streeting faced a grilling from Christopher Hope
GB News
Streeting emphasised the need for "investment plus reform" to deliver results, citing the previous Labour Government's success in achieving the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction and highlighting the current Government's focus on capital and technology investments to enhance system efficiency.
"Even when we're doing things like 40,000 more appointments every week, that will also be achieved through reformed ways of working," Streeting said.
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However, Hope pointed to Gordon Brown's seven per cent real-terms increase in NHS spending in 2001, suggesting the money primarily benefited staff rather than improving outcomes for taxpayers.
Streeting responded: "Well, hang on a second. I mean, as I said, the last Labour Government did deliver the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction.
"We've been in for three months. In that time, we've ended the junior doctors' strikes. We've introduced a ban on junk food, targeted kids. We've employed a thousand more GPS onto the NHS front line.
"In the coming days, we'll be sending cracking teams of clinicians into hospitals, not just with high waiting lists, but high numbers of people off work off sick.
"Also, you know, just last week at the International Investment Summit where we agreed £63billion worth of deals with the private sector. Some of that money was also earmarked for life sciences and groundbreaking treatments to tackle obesity.
Wes Streeting has claimed that he can't fix the NHS in one budget
GB News
"I'm not pretending we've fixed it all in a few months. Of course, we're not going to do that, and I can't fix 14 problems in one, but 14 years of problems in one budget.
"But we have hit the ground running. We're getting on with the job and of course, the best is yet to come."
Streeting attributed this partly to staff lacking proper tools and technology but went on to emphasise the need to "get the basics right" in NHS operations.
Hope branded the NHS a "leaky bucket"
GB News
"If someone can't get a GP appointment that costs £40, for example, they can end up in A&E, which costs £400," Streeting explained.
Drawing attention to support from unexpected quarters, including the Liberal Democrats and Nigel Farage's Reform Party, Streeting highlighted the need for a "new national consensus" on NHS reform.
"I think we are building a new national consensus here, and I think that can only be a good thing," Streeting said.
"I'm focused relentlessly on reform and making sure the NHS works more efficiently, more effectively," he added.
This approach, Streeting argued, would benefit both patients and taxpayers by providing more convenient care and better value for money.