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Wednesday’s Budget will be a significant turning point for our country and our National Health Service.
When we took office in July, we inherited a broken health service and a £22 billion black hole in the public finances.
Despite the Conservatives’ promise to build 40 new hospitals by 2030, the projects were delayed by years, and the funding runs out in months.
They had given up on resolving the strikes. The previous Health Secretary hadn’t met the junior doctors since March, and the pay rises proposed by the independent pay review bodies had not been budgeted for.
The Tories had allowed the health service to run up billions of pounds of deficits, and the country was on the brink of having millions of NHS procedures and appointments cancelled.
It falls to this government to clean up the Tories’ mess, and that is what the Chancellor will begin to do on Wednesday, finally getting an iron grip on the nation’s finances.
Rachel Reeves has said she will make the NHS a priority for the Budget. With the country facing a dire financial position, this is not something I am taking for granted.
I am conscious that every penny spent on our health services is one that is not going towards crumbling schools, prison places, or our armed forces. And I know that Sunday Express readers are feeling the pinch in their own pockets.
So I have a duty to make extra funding count. I will not write a blank cheque for the NHS – the extra funding will come alongside reform.
Because the NHS deals in budgets in the billions, too often it doesn’t think about the millions. That has to change. We will have a laser-like focus on getting better value for taxpayers’ money. I’ve already begun waging a war to eliminate waste across the NHS. Every year the NHS throws away tens of millions of items like crutches, scissors, and surgical shears after a single use. Some hospitals are already making significant savings by switching to reusable kit- I will make sure every part of the NHS has their eye on squeezing out more bang for taxpayers’ buck.
My number one priority is to cut waiting lists so patients can get the care they need, when they need it. Investment will be accompanied by reform to how hospitals manage their surgeries. We’re taking inspiration from formula one pit stops, so surgeons can get through more patients each day.
Reform doesn’t just mean making the NHS more productive. We will also change the health service so it is fit for the 21st century.
This week the Prime Minister and I launched the biggest national conversation about the NHS since its founding. Hundreds of thousands of patients and frontline staff have already shared their experiences, ideas, views on what needs to change about the health service.
Their views will shape our ten-year plan to turn the NHS into a Neighbourhood Health Service, powered by modern technology, preventing ill-health as well as treating it. I want to hear from Sunday Express readers too, so please visit Change.NHS.uk and help make the NHS fit for the future.
People are fed up of feeling like Britain is on a downward spiral. This Budget will be the turning point for our economy and health service, where we start to end the decline, fix the foundations and rebuild.
It will take time and it won’t be easy. But our country has so much going for it. Take the NHS. It is the best placed healthcare system in the world to take advantage of the revolution in technology and science. It is the perfect partner for the world leading scientists and pharmaceutical companies we have based here in Britain. Together, they can develop new treatments that will save countless lives.
These opportunities lay before us. This Labour government will seize them.