Analysis: When is a plan for the NHS not a plan for the NHS?
As Rishi Sunak faces yet another scandal after sacking Nadhim Zahawi, his ’emergency’ plan to speed up NHS wait times in A&E falls flat of what is needed, writes Sascha O’Sullivan
When Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister last year, he brought to an end the tradition of cabinet ministers facing journalists every morning.
This morning’s performance by Helen Whately, the social care minister, was a reminder of what we’ve been missing.
Whately was supposed to address both the sacking of Conservative party chair Nadhim Zahawi and the government’s “new” blueprint for to speed up ambulance response times and prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.
But the plan is essentially an admission the NHS won’t be “fixed” anytime soon.
By March next year, 76 per cent of patients will wait no longer than four hours at A&E, and ambulances will have to arrive on the scene for suspect strokes and heart attacks within an average of 30 minutes.
This is still 12 minutes longer than the target of 18 minutes, which as any doctor will tell you, could make all the difference for someone with a heart attack.
There will also be no extra cash under the “recovery” plan.
In a sign that will worry hospital bosses, Whately told BBC Radio 4 there needed to be “different thinking” about how to tackle the crisis in the NHS more broadly.
Many who subscribe to the Conservatives-secret-plot-to-privatise-the-NHS will be worried by this wording.
Other than what had already been set out by the government, Whately offered little insight into either the NHS or the Zahawi affair.
As she will (we hope) know, much of the problem is getting people out of hospitals and back home when there are not enough provisions for the social care sector.
In other words, it’s not clear how to solve the bigger picture of a health system past breaking point, without addressing social care.
Given much of the health and social care levy, introduced by Rishi Sunak way back in 2021, initially was directed towards frontline NHS services hurt badly by the pandemic, the sector is still strapped for cash and its workforce depleted.