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Category: Health

  • John Milne – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    John Milne – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    The speech made by John Milne, the Liberal Democrat MP for Horsham, in the House of Commons on 22 May 2025.

    Since being elected to represent Horsham, I have been approached by many residents facing impossible prices for urgent dental treatment. Annie is 67 and caring for a husband with terminal bowel cancer. You would think that she has enough things to worry about, but given the state of dental services in the Horsham area, she has been unable to find an NHS dentist within a 20-mile radius. Forced to go private, she paid £80 for an assessment and was then quoted £150 for an extraction. She asks simply:

    “When will an alternative to private dentistry be available?”

    I also heard from Sally. Her family were denied NHS root canal treatment, with an £800 private option as the only alternative. She asks:

    “How can we trust their advice when it feels like it’s all about the money?”

    Of course, this is a crisis not of dentists, but of dentistry. The NHS contract—based as it is on units of dental activity—is simply no longer fit for purpose, if it ever was. The conflict of interest between public and private is the result of more and more dentists being forced to subsidise their NHS contracts through private work. The Government have committed to providing more support and more urgent appointments, but it is hard to get enough new employees through the front door when so many continue to leave by the back door.

    In the area covered by my local integrated care board, there are more people leaving than joining across many key dental roles. Over a six-month period to the end of March last year, there were 41 general dentists in and 43 out; one orthodontist in and two out; 48 dental nurses in and 60 out; and 48 receptionists in and 54 out. In fact, five out of nine roles in dentists’ clinics have been losing staff faster than they can get new ones. The result is ever-declining access to NHS dental services, with children losing their teeth before they even reach the age of 10 and the horror stories of do-it-yourself dental treatment.

    I will leave the House with the words of the West Sussex local dental committee, which contacted me just weeks after my election last year regarding the NHS dental contract. Its warning was simple:

    “If we don’t act quickly, there may be very little NHS left to adopt a new NHS contract.”

    I accept that the present Government were not responsible for causing this problem, but they are responsible for fixing it.

  • Claire Hazelgrove – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    Claire Hazelgrove – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    The speech made by Claire Hazelgrove, the Labour MP for Filtry and Bradley Stoke, in the House of Commons on 22 May 2025.

    I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) for securing this debate.

    Today marks a year since the general election was called. Over the two-and-a-half years before then, I was out knocking on doors and listening to people across the Filton and Bradley Stoke constituency, as I still do almost every weekend. One of the issues raised with me the most was how hard it had become to find and keep an NHS dentist. Listening and acting on what matters locally, I took that campaign up. I raised those local issues with the then shadow Health Secretary, who kindly raised them here in the House of Commons for us before the election. Still there was no change from the Conservatives, who voted against Labour’s plans to rescue NHS dentistry and, remarkably, continued to do nothing.

    Conservative failure is far from a deterrent. I ran a survey asking local people what their experiences were— I thank fellow residents who took the time to complete it—and the findings were clear. Only 31% of those who completed my survey had an NHS dentist, but almost everyone without an NHS dentist—97%—wanted one. Notably, 65% of those without an NHS dentist said that it was because theirs went private, and nearly all respondents—94%—agreed that Labour’s plans to open up 700,000 more urgent appointments a year where they are most needed would help. Still no action came from the Conservatives, and local people voted for change.

    My very first question in this House was about ensuring we have the right infrastructure as our communities grow, including dentists. Living locally, I know how challenging this has become—I do not have an NHS dentist, either. While receiving official designation as a dental desert is not something anyone wants for their community, I am relieved that we finally have a Government who recognise the challenges we face. This Labour Government’s action means that across our integrated care board area we will now have an extra 19,000 urgent NHS dental appointments, and I know this will be just the beginning. The Government will reform the dental contract and examine how we can encourage more dentists to stay within the NHS, getting us back to that place where people can again pop that dentist’s appointment back on the calendar, whether they like going or not.

    I will not stand for a future where as many as six in 10 children have rotting teeth by the age of five, as they do in the Britain we have inherited. I will not stand for a future where the most common reason why children are admitted to hospital is tooth decay, as it is in the Britain we have inherited. I will continue to campaign for good access to NHS dentists across my community for as long as it takes, and I am glad to finally have a Government who I can work with—rather than have to fight against—to get the NHS dental services we need locally.

  • Andrew Murrison – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    Andrew Murrison – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    The speech made by Andrew Murrison, the Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire, in the House of Commons on 22 May 2025.

    Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I prefer Ben— I have never enjoyed Andrew—but Andrew will do.

    Quite honestly, NHS dentists are saints. As my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) has said, the reason why we do not have any NHS dentists is that it is far more remunerative to do expensive dental work than the sort of grinding service work that NHS dentistry implies. The reason for that, fundamentally, is the so-called new dental contract introduced in 2006. That is the problem. Units of dental activity have plagued the dental profession and the provision of NHS dentistry all these years.

    I am delighted that the Government are revising the dental contract that their Labour predecessor introduced 20 years ago, but, unless they are prepared to underwrite it, I am afraid that we will still be more or less in the same position. It is not as if we are not training dentists—we are training more and more dentists and there are more and more dental schools, and rightly so—but if those professionals are going to practice in the NHS, they need to be incentivised to do so.

    Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)

    I agree with the right hon. Gentleman about the 2006 NHS dentistry contract, which clearly needed revision. Why did his party not do that in 14 years in government?

    Dr Murrison

    I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman has destroyed the consensual way in which I was trying to introduce my remarks.

    If I may, I will explain that I think there has been a conspiracy of silence all these years on NHS dentistry. What Government have to get to grips with is whether they intend that dentistry should continue to be a universal part of our NHS and whether it will be exempted from the universality that has characterised the provision of healthcare services in this country since 1948.

    The Government could decide that dentistry is a bit like ophthalmic optics, which in the 1940s was deliberately excluded from NHS provision. I am not recommending that, but I am recommending to the Minister that we are at least honest with the public. At the moment, we have this pretence around NHS dentistry that says, “Of course you have the right to have your teeth fixed at no cost to you at all up front.” In reality, in most parts of the country, mine included, that is a complete fiction.

    When the Government come to their new arrangements, which I welcome very much, can we first have some honesty? Can we have some money behind them? Can we have some idea about what part of current NHS provision the Government intend to deprioritise, if that is their intention, to ensure that we have truly universal provision of NHS dentistry going forward?

  • Irene Campbell – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    Irene Campbell – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    The speech made by Irene Campbell, the Labour MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, in the House of Commons on 22 May 2025.

    When the NHS was introduced, it made the biggest positive changes ever to the health of the general population. The original “How to use your NHS” booklet from 1948 stated:

    “It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone—rich or poor, man, woman or child—can use it or any part of it.”

    On the topic of dentistry, it said:

    “After 5th July you can go to any dentist taking part in the new arrangements (there will be a list at your Post Office).”

    At that time, 83% of registered dentists signed up to work in the NHS. Currently, in England, approximately 66% are signed up to work in the NHS, a significant reduction since the early days that demonstrates a clear barrier to access.

    As a former NHS manager in Scotland, I have seen the importance of early intervention when it comes to health inequalities, particularly in dentistry. Scotland too has an access crisis, with decreasing numbers of NHS participating dentists. Naturally, those lower levels of participation affect patient access to NHS dental services, and dentists lose the chance to pick up early signs of decay, cancers and other serious issues, which results in higher costs for the NHS and worse outcomes for patients.

    Additionally, children and adults from the most deprived areas were less likely than their wealthier counterparts to have seen their dentist within the last two years. Recent statistics from Public Health Scotland showed that 55.9% of children from the most deprived areas have seen their dentist in the last two years, compared with 75.8% for children in the least deprived areas. Those figures drop to 42.7% and 53.5% for adults.

    In September 2008, the gap in child participation between the most and least deprived areas was three percentage points. That increased to seven percentage points by 2010, 18 percentage points in 2021, and then 20 percentage points in 2023. We cannot let that continue. As oral health inequalities continue to grow, it is important that our NHS strategy involves a focus on increasing participation and access in more deprived areas. Otherwise, we will continue to see further such worrying trends, which cause more serious problems further down the line.

  • Julian Lewis – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    Julian Lewis – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    The speech made by Julian Lewis, the Conservative MP for New Forest East, in the House of Commons on 22 May 2025.

    Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for that no-pressure introduction. I congratulate the hon. Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) on her speech and I agree with every part of it. I was hoping to quote from individual cases raised by constituents and from the local Women’s Institute, but all that will have to go by the board.

    I have a wonderful briefing from the British Dental Association and, in the remaining two and a half minutes, I would like to make one pertinent observation, from which everything else flows. Dentistry is a highly skilled profession in which practitioners can charge colossal sums of money in private practice, which gives them a financial incentive to steer clear of working for the NHS. That is the root of the problem.

    On 13 March, I put a question to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care about a point made by the Darzi report, last September, which says:

    “There are enough dentists in England, just not enough dentists willing to do enough NHS work, which impacts provision for the poorest in society.”

    I was pleasantly surprised when his reply was:

    “NHS dentistry is in a terrible state and, in fact, in many parts of the country it barely exists. There are lots of reasons for that, and it is a source of constant astonishment to me that the dentistry budget was underspent year after year despite that situation.”—[Official Report, 13 March 2025; Vol. 763, c. 1298.]

    In reality, as the BDA points out, the reason why that budget is underspent is not because of the lack of demand, but because NHS practices cannot fill vacancies and are unable to meet contractual commitments. Therefore, those who do work with and for the NHS are having to deliver dental care at a loss. There is a fundamental requirement for a rewritten constitution and contract by which it becomes worthwhile for people to practice dentistry in the NHS, because otherwise we will see a two-tier society, in which only the rich can get the dental care that people so desperately need.

  • Melanie Onn – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    Melanie Onn – 2025 Speech on Access to NHS Dentistry

    The speech made by Melanie Onn, the Labour MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, in the House of Commons on 22 May 2025.

    I beg to move,

    That this House has considered access to NHS dentistry.

    I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this debate and the colleagues who supported that application. I am pleased that many Members want to speak and am aware of the limitations on time, so I will keep my remarks brief.

    During the general election, Labour promised to tackle the lack of NHS dental services, and I welcome the progress already made in the Labour Government’s first 10 months. After 14 years of neglect we are finally starting to see action to address the crisis in NHS dental care, including the launch of 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments, with my own integrated care board in Humber and North Yorkshire delivering 27,196 of them across the region.

    This Government are rightly focusing on prevention by rolling out much-needed supervised tooth-brushing schemes in schools. That is a small intervention with long-term benefits, particularly for children growing up in areas like mine where levels of tooth decay are among the highest in England. Currently, one in three five-year-olds in deprived areas experience tooth decay—a shocking statistic that simply must be addressed.

    Over 260,000 people have signed a petition led by the British Dental Association, the Women’s Institute and the Daily Mirror calling on the Government to urgently deliver on their promise to reform NHS dentistry, and the demand could not be more urgent. Catherine, one of many constituents who has written to me about dental provision, had been with her dentist for over a decade but during the pandemic a missed appointment—a simple missed appointment that was cancelled by the surgery itself—saw her removed from her regular appointments, and she has since been unable to join another practice, being told that waiting lists would take at least two years. In the meantime she suffered devastating deterioration to her oral health, losing all of her back teeth, suffering with an infected crown and bridge, and facing the real fear of losing her top teeth too; and Catherine is only in her 40s. She was quoted £14,000 privately for treatment. She simply cannot afford that. She has had to endure constant pain that no one should be left to bear.

    Constituents regularly tell me that they cannot find an NHS dentist taking new patients. They are calling every single practice listed on the NHS website and they are getting nowhere. People are living in pain, they are missing work and their mental health is suffering. Some people are even attempting their own dental work, and we cannot allow that to become the norm.

    The desire for action is also supported by dental practices in my constituency. One of them told me:

    “We’re seeing high-need patients we’ve never treated before, often for complex work—but we’re doing this using the same budget we’ve had for years.”

    In fact, some of the new urgent care and schools-based initiatives are not additionally funded. The BDA’s most recent figures show that dentists in England are delivering the least NHS care of all four UK nations: only 39% of dentists in England are spending most of their time on NHS work, compared with nearly 60% in Scotland. Practices are delivering NHS treatments at a loss: they lose over £42 for every denture fitted and nearly £8 for every new patient they see.

    This Labour Government pledged to reform the dental contract: it was in our manifesto; it was part of the plan that we were elected on. I welcome the early signs of recovery, but when we say that we want to go further, faster, it is precisely on issues like this that the public are looking to Government to deliver.

    In Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes and across the nation we are privileged to have so many dedicated dental professionals. Tomorrow I am visiting Dental Design Studio to celebrate its 20 years of high-quality dental care provision in Cleethorpes. It is a real credit to the team there who have delivered consistent care to local people, often under increasing strain. And our young people are not forgotten locally: thanks to the commitment of Dr Jatinder Ubhi from Dentology, multiple young people in my constituency have received essential dental support.

    We must not let dentistry become a luxury service only for those who can afford to go private. We need a new approach that is fair, that funds dentists properly, and that delivers accessible care to everyone who needs it.

  • Peter Swallow – 2025 Speech on the Mental Health Bill and Legislative Scrutiny

    Peter Swallow – 2025 Speech on the Mental Health Bill and Legislative Scrutiny

    The speech made by Peter Swallow, the Labour MP for Bracknell, in the House of Commons on 22 May 2025.

    It is an honour to present to the House the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report into the Mental Health Bill. As Members will know, the Joint Committee is a cross-party body of both Houses, chaired by Lord Alton of Liverpool, whose remit is to examine matters relating to human rights within the UK, including through legislative scrutiny.

    Over the course of our inquiry into the Bill, we have examined legal frameworks and witness submissions and, crucially, heard from those with direct experience of the mental health system. As part of our inquiry, the Committee convened a roundtable with individuals who had experienced detention under the Mental Health Act 1983. Their testimonies were powerful, candid and often harrowing. They spoke of the trauma of being sectioned, the overuse of medication and restraint, and the disempowerment from being detained in facilities that too often felt isolating rather than therapeutic.

    Participants have since shared with us

    “how important this visibility was to them, to see their evidence truly listened to and shared publicly”.

    Hearing directly from people with lived experience was not just informative; it was essential. These conversations grounded our scrutiny in the realities faced by patients and families. The insights shared at that roundtable shaped our thinking and sharpened our final recommendations. As one participant told us:

    “lived experience matters. Using it to inform policy should be the standard, not a shock.”

    I take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to the roundtable, often at the cost of revisiting past trauma. The Committee is also grateful for the expert work of the Committee’s legal counsel, particularly Alex Gask who led on this work, as well as Thiago Simoes Froio and Hafsa Saeed who led on the delivery of the roundtable event.

    It became clear over the course of our scrutiny just how overdue the Mental Health Bill had become. It will introduce substantial changes to the Mental Health Act, which provides the legal framework for the detention and compulsory treatment of people with “mental disorders”—an outdated term, but one that remains part of our law. The changes introduced by the Bill will bring our mental health legislation into the 21st century, strengthen patient rights and help end practices that bring more harm than good.

    When people hear about detention under the Mental Health Act, many instinctively think of those who have committed the most serious and violent crimes. They picture high-security hospitals such as Broadmoor, which happens to be located in my constituency. I have had the opportunity to visit Broadmoor. The work they do there is outstanding; it is vital, world-leading work that deals with some of the most complex and challenging cases in psychiatric medicine.

    Let us be clear, though: the reality of detention under the Mental Health Act is not limited to high-security hospitals or individuals convicted of serious crimes. Many people detained under the Act are not criminals. Many of them are children, young people and adults with autism or learning disabilities who are detained not because they pose a danger to others, but because the support they need in their communities simply is not there. This is not just inefficient, it can often be deeply traumatising and raises significant human rights concerns.

    That is why the Committee welcomes the major changes introduced by the Government’s Bill. It will end the detention of individuals under section 3 of the Mental Health Act solely on the basis that they are autistic or have a learning disability; tighten the criteria for detention and require decision makers to consider the nature, degree and likelihood of harm before deciding to detain; introduce the concept of a nominated person to replace the outdated nearest relative system; and remove police stations and prisons as places of safety for individuals in crisis. As stated in the evidence we received from witnesses, those are important, welcomed and long-awaited reforms. They reflect the breadth of the Government’s consultations and prove that the Government listened to the information they received.

    While welcoming the Bill’s direction of travel, the Committee believes that there are areas where the Government could go even further to provide enhanced protections for human rights. That is why, based on the evidence we received during the inquiry, we have recommended a few key amendments. First, we recommend a new clause to ensure that children detained under the Mental Health Act are accommodated on adult wards only when that is demonstrably in their best interests.

    Secondly, we recommend an amendment to clause 1 to include equity as a fifth guiding principle under the Act. This would refer specifically to addressing inequalities in treatments and outcomes on racial grounds in particular, and I welcome the Health Secretary saying on Second Reading of the Bill on Monday:

    “People from ethnic minority communities, especially black African and Caribbean men, are more than three times as likely to be sectioned.”—[Official Report, 19 May 2025; Vol. 767, c. 783.]

    In our report, we find that adding equity as a guiding principle would do more to address racial disparities.

    Thirdly, we recommend an amendment to clause 32 to shorten the review periods for restricted patients who are discharged into conditions amounting to the deprivation of liberty. The first review will be required within six months, rather than 12, and subsequent reviews will take place annually, rather than every two years.

    Those key amendments come amid a range of other recommendations. Recent case law shows that mental health patients in state-commissioned and funded but privately provided care do not come within the protection of the Human Rights Act. That loophole must be closed, and we recommend that the Government do just that.

    We also heard evidence that the question of when the Mental Health Act and when the Mental Capacity Act should govern a patient’s deprivation of liberty and treatment is far too complex and raises human rights concerns, not least because depriving a person of their liberty on any ground can be justified only if the legal basis is clear. We therefore recommend that the Government carry out an urgent review and provide the clarity that is currently lacking on this question.

    Another crucial area the Bill covers is the rights of children, who are particularly vulnerable when assessed or treated under the Mental Health Act. Many of the proposed changes to the law will be positive for children, including the introduction of an opt-out approach to receiving a report from independent mental health advocates, but we recommend that the Government consult on introducing a statutory test for assessing whether under-16s are competent to consent or to refuse consent to treatment—a cornerstone of compliance with a child’s human rights.

    The Committee also deems it vital that prisoners whose mental health makes holding them in prison unsuitable are transferred promptly to an appropriate setting. Keeping them in prison may result in human rights breaches. In our report, we welcome the introduction in the Bill of a statutory 28-day timeframe for hospital transfer. Relevant data should be collected and made available to monitor and help to ensure compliance with that standard.

    The Committee welcomes changes to restriction orders placed on a small number of offenders detained under a hospital order, but the Government should consider introducing more prompt and regular reviews by the mental health tribunal, to ensure that any loss of liberty is justified. Witnesses told us that, in the absence of effective support in the community, autistic people and people with learning disabilities could still end up in unjustified detention on other legal bases. The Government have stated that the change in the Bill will come into force only where there are strong community services in place, but it is vital that this does not delay the much-needed reform. We therefore welcome the Government’s commitment to provide a written ministerial statement annually to both Houses of Parliament setting out progress to date on implementation. On what more the Bill could do to improve the prospects of patients receiving timely care in the community, we also ask the Government to consider introducing an English equivalent to the right to a mental health assessment that applies in Wales.

    The report makes it clear that much more is needed to fix the broken mental health system in this country, and I know the Government recognise that as well. This is a small, targeted Bill, which will not change everything, but the changes it will introduce are significant and long overdue. The Government have committed to introducing mental health experts in every school, to set up Young Futures hubs and to recruit 8,500 more mental health staff. By focusing on community-based interventions and driving down waiting lists for mental health support alongside the welcome changes in the Bill, we can turn the tide and fix our broken mental health system, so that the human rights of all those with mental health needs are properly protected and they can get the support they need.

    I commend this report to the House.

  • Wes Streeting – 2025 Speech on Men’s Health

    Wes Streeting – 2025 Speech on Men’s Health

    The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, at Central Hall in Westminster, London on 13 May 2025.

    It is a genuine pleasure to be here alongside so many friends – people I don’t yet know, but people we want to work with.

    It’s great to have such a wide range of people and organisations represented around the room, who are creating spaces for men to fight loneliness.

    Encouraging open conversations about masculinity and providing positive role models for boys across our country.

    I want to thank you, Richard, for picking up this agenda and helping to force it into the mainstream.

    Society has been slow to wake up to the fact that a lot of men and boys are really struggling today, and you’re playing a big role in correcting that.

    And, as you alluded to in your remarks, making sure that this is a mainstream agenda and not one that is surrendered to the margins and the extremes.

    So, I’m looking forward to working with you and your institute as we begin to develop solutions to the inequalities and injustices that men and boys face in our country today.

    The truth is it can be quite tough to be a young man in today’s society.

    Lots of boys, particularly those from working class backgrounds like mine, are falling behind at school and are worried about their futures.

    The proliferation of toxic influences and content on social media is leading a lot of boys astray.

    A lot of content on social media that provided a real challenge for girls in terms of positive body image and what it meant to be a perfect girl or a woman in our society – those challenges are now applying to men and boys in similar if sometimes different ways.

    And all of this is contributing to a crisis in masculinity.

    Since taking on the health and social care brief in opposition 3 and a half years ago, I’ve been very outspoken about the fact that it takes 7 and a half years for women to receive a diagnosis for a common condition like endometriosis, or that a universal experience like menopause is still treated as if it’s a rare condition affecting alien species.

    And I feel just as enraged about the inequalities in men’s health, frankly.

    Men are living 4 years less than women.

    The gap widens if you just look at working class communities.

    Men are disproportionately affected by cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

    The tragedy is that many of these conditions are treatable and even preventable.

    Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as White men.

    And suicide is the number one killer of men under the age of 50, which was a fact so shocking that I nearly fell off my chair when I first heard it and actually asked for the statistic to be checked. And the fact that it’s now more commonly cited should not make the fact itself less shocking or outrageous.

    Nothing frustrates me more than when men’s health and women’s health are pitted in opposition to each other, as if by focusing on the men’s health strategy, we are in any way detracting from the work we’re doing on women’s health.

    This is not an either or.

    It very much has to be hand in hand, and we will address both.

    And it also does a disservice to lots of women in our society, as if somehow women don’t care about their fathers and grandfathers, their brothers, their sons, their nephews any less than we care about our mothers or grandmothers, our sisters.

    It’s really serious.

    So I actually think that we are all in this together, and we will succeed as a society if we’re working together to tackle the injustices and inequalities that affect men and women.

    There’s a common problem across the NHS that women’s voices are not heard, and women are not listened to.

    When it comes to men, I think the problem is often we’re more reluctant to speak up in the first place.

    One in 3 men have never had a conversation with a brother, father or grandfather about their health.

    The same number would prefer to suffer in silence than go to the doctor about their mental health.

    So, I think we’ve got to teach men from a young age that it’s okay to feel, to hurt and to ask for help.

    Doing so doesn’t make you any less of a man.

    And I think that making sure this generation of young men and boys are aware of that fact is how we make them less likely to channel their emotions into anger, aggression or depression.

    This is all why we’re doing the first ever men’s health strategy.

    I announced this last year at the Emirates Stadium to coincide with Movember, alongside a large number of men’s groups and organisations, charities and men’s health ambassadors.

    It was a great event, but one of the things that came out of it on the day and since has never ceased to amaze me. And that is just how many people said, “thank you”.

    That’s not just because as a politician, it’s rare for someone to say thank you.

    I mean, to be fair, we’ve got to give people something to be grateful about.

    But, actually, I was saying to people, look, you can thank us when we’ve done something.

    All I’ve done is say we’re going to have a strategy.

    We hadn’t even launched the call for evidence at that point.

    When we’ve done something, when we’ve had an impact and we’ve started to change those statistics and change things about their lives and futures.

    But actually the pushback I got was, no, actually, we’re genuinely grateful because we’ve been fighting for this for so many years and haven’t had a hearing, let alone someone being prepared to launch a call for evidence that will lead to a strategy.

    And that tells us something about the extent to which men’s health has been overlooked, and particularly men’s mental health.

    So we launched our call for evidence for the men’s health strategy in April, and I was about to say, I want to ask everyone who hasn’t responded yet to do so and spread the word further.

    But actually, we have been really overwhelmed and really struck by just how positive and engaged such a large number of organisations have been.

    But nonetheless, we want to make sure we engage as many men, as many organisations and as many different types of men and different parts of the country from different communities as we have.

    Which is right.

    We have to look at the data and we will take an evidence-based approach.

    But as we know, statistics paint a picture to an extent, but what we also need to do is understand the story that we want to tell.

    We’re talking about the experience of men and boys today and how we’re going to make it so much better, so we could do with more insight as well as data, especially from those grassroots organisations in this room and beyond, in a range of communities across the country, whether on physical health or mental health, whether we’re talking about White men or Black men, whether we’re talking about class inequality as well, which is at the heart of a lot of mental health. Any serious attempt to address mental health must confront these inequalities head on.

    So, we’ve got our work cut out for us. Doing is a lot more important than talking.

    We’ve done the easy bit, in my view.

    We’ve committed to having a strategy to making a difference and making sure that we’re proud of the impact.

    But in order to be successful, this isn’t just a challenge that government can address.

    This is about government playing its part, but working in partnership with civil society, with businesses, with all of us as citizens to try and tackle what are a wide range of challenges and problems facing men and boys.

    And that’s why this gathering is really important to me, the department and the government, because we need to do this with you rather than to you. And with this level of enthusiasm, this level of energy, we genuinely think we can do something impactful that we’ll be able to look back on for the rest of our lives with pride, knowing that we were prepared to confront the problems and the challenges head on, and make sure that boys growing up in this country today, whoever they are, whatever their background, can achieve their fullest potential and look forward to a life well lived, rather than experience the deep anxiety and despair far too many boys in our country are experiencing today.

    So thank you very much in advance.

  • Wes Streeting – 2025 Speech at Unison’s Annual Conference

    Wes Streeting – 2025 Speech at Unison’s Annual Conference

    The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in Liverpool on 9 April 2025.

    Good morning conference.

    Let’s start on a point of agreement.

    The killing of 15 health and rescue workers in Gaza was an appalling and intolerable tragedy.

    Healthcare workers in any context, in any part of the world, should never be a target.

    The international community, or indeed any actors in any conflict, all have a responsibility to protect health and humanitarian aid workers and also to protect innocent civilians.

    And it’s clear that in Gaza, as well as in other conflict zones around the world at the moment, the international community is failing and failing badly.

    So I want to say, as a Unison member, I strongly support the sentiments expressed by our Healthcare Executive.

    But on behalf of our government, we want to see a return to an immediate ceasefire.

    We want to see aid in, people out of harm’s way, an end to this bloody conflict and a state of Palestine alongside a state of Israel, and the just and lasting peace that Israelis and Palestinians deserve.

    I also have to say, having been to the West Bank with Medical Aid for Palestinians and seen first hand the work that they do supporting the health needs of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories, they do brilliant work.

    And I would fully endorse the sentiment of the motion in supporting them, and each of us putting our hands in our pockets to do that.

    I’m proud to be here today as the first Health and Social Care Secretary to address a UNISON conference since Andy Burnham did 15 years ago—and proud to do so as a UNISON member.

    My first ever parliamentary debate in 2015 was with UNISON, opposing the abolition of the NHS bursary. Since then, I’ve spoken on countless UNISON platforms across my time as Shadow Schools Minister, Shadow Child Poverty Minister, and Shadow Health & Social Care Secretary.

    But today is different. This is the first time I speak to UNISON not as someone discussing what a Labour government should do, but what we are doing—delivering real change to transform society and improve working people’s lives.

    Last July was historic. Labour returned to power with a thumping majority—only the fourth time in our history. It was a result made possible by UNISON’s support for Keir Starmer: helping to change the party, change the government, and now change the country. That victory brought 74 new UNISON MPs into Parliament, including Katrina Murray, Melanie Onn, Mark Ferguson, and my own PPS, Deirdre Costigan. Three UNISON MPs are now in the Department of Health and Social Care: Stephen Kinnock, Karin Smyth, and me.

    We’re delivering the change people voted for. It’s not easy—and I know you’ll have questions and challenges. But we’re ready to engage. UNISON has always been a critical friend to Labour. The “critical” part is just as important as the “friend” part.

    In the past nine months, nothing has shaken my conviction that we will get the NHS back on its feet and build a National Care Service worthy of the name.

    Take Southport, for example. On July 29th, a senseless, mindless attack left children and adults bleeding, some dying, in a community centre. NHS staff responded with extraordinary courage—from paramedics and porters to receptionists and surgeons. But what happened next filled me with rage. Racist thugs attacked Filipino nurses, a Nigerian care worker’s car was torched, and GP surgeries had to close. These are people who came here to care for us. They represent the best of Britain.

    Violence against NHS staff must end. One in seven NHS workers have suffered abuse. That shames us all. So today, I’m announcing mandatory national recording of incidents, data analysis to protect the most at-risk, and requirements for NHS trust boards to report on progress. Zero tolerance. Campaigned for by UNISON. Denied by the Tories. Delivered by Labour.

    Too often, NHS staff are trained at great public expense, only to be driven out by poor treatment. Some end up working in Canada or Australia. We must retain talent and respect staff—through training, flexible working, and fair pay. That’s why we’re implementing a new digital system to fairly apply the Job Evaluation Scheme. A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Campaigned for by UNISON. Denied by the Tories. Delivered by Labour.

    I owe my life to NHS staff who treated me for kidney cancer. I’ll never be able to repay that debt, but I’ll try. You were there for me—I’ll be there for you.

    We have a ten-year plan. The Conservatives left us with record waiting times and low satisfaction. Our mission: get the NHS treating patients on time, and reform it for the future.

    We’ve engaged more than a million people in the biggest NHS consultation ever, including 3,000 staff meetings. The result, to be published this spring, will outline three goals:

    • Shift care out of hospitals and into the community;

    • Modernise the NHS with digital tools and technology;

    • Build a preventative health service to tackle major killers.

    This isn’t the staff’s fault. But we can’t fix it without you. I know how hard it is to fight a broken system. But help is coming. My message: stay and help us rescue it. We’re turning it around.

    In nine months, we’ve already:

    • Given NHS staff an above-inflation pay rise;

    • Ended the resident doctors’ strikes;

    • Invested £26 billion in health and care;

    • Made the largest investment in hospices in a generation;

    • Agreed the GP contract with £889 million in new funding;

    • Reversed a decade of pharmacy cuts;

    • Delivered 2 million extra appointments—seven months early;

    • Diagnosed 80,000 suspected cancer cases early;

    • Cut waiting lists for five months in a row.

    On social care, we’ve delivered the biggest-ever increase to carers allowance—£2,300 extra a year—and introduced fair pay agreements as part of Labour’s Employment Rights Bill. That’s the first step in building a National Care Service.

    And today, I can announce the first universal career structure in adult social care: four new job roles and millions in training investment.

    Keir Starmer said his ambition is for his sister, a care worker, to be treated with the same respect as her brother, the Prime Minister. With Labour, she will be.

    But we carry a huge responsibility—not just to NHS users, but to prove that the NHS can still deliver. On its 75th anniversary, most Britons were proud of the NHS. But 70% thought “free at the point of use” won’t survive the next decade.

    Right-wing figures like Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage want to change that. Farage wants insurance-based models and to charge patients. Over my dead body.

    We will always defend the NHS as a public service—free when you need it, no matter who you are.

    Tories and Reform are willing us to fail. But the future of our party and our health service are bound together. The stakes are high. But the prize is huge: an NHS where workers are respected and patients get the care they deserve.

    We can look back one day and say: we were the generation that rescued the NHS from its worst crisis and made it fit for the future.

    Change has begun—and the best is still to come.

  • Keir Starmer – 2025 Speech on the NHS

    Keir Starmer – 2025 Speech on the NHS

    The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, at the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, Epsom on 6 January 2025.

    A happy new year to you all!

    I hope you had a refreshing Christmas break.

    I do recognise and realise that for so many people in the NHS, those words ‘Christmas’ and ‘break’ don’t very often go well together.

    So before I say anything else – can I just say to all of you, and through you to all of your colleagues who work in the NHS. Thank you.

    Thank you for the service to our country. And for the countless lives that you save and change – every single day. A massive thank you to you.

    Now, this year of course is the 80th anniversaries of VE and VJ day.

    And on the 8th of May and the 15th of August we will come together to celebrate the greatest victory of this country and the greatest generation that achieved it.

    It will be a wonderful moment – and we intend to do them proud.

    But what that generation knew is that the strength and prosperity of a nation rests on the security of working people.

    And that the fundamental job of government is to deliver that security so working people can realise their aspirations and drive a country forward.

    And so for this Government that is what this year is about, what next year is about, what every waking moment is about.

    The goal of our Plan for Change. And this year – we will deliver.

    And let me tell you there is no institution more important for the security of our country than the National Health Service built by that generation eight decades ago now.

    It’s the embodiment of British values and humanity.

    Fairness and equal respect.

    But look at it now. And I’m looking at the staff here.

    Because the feeling of record dissatisfaction.

    Millions of people – waiting, waiting, waiting on waiting lists.

    Their lives on hold.

    The potential of the country, if you like – blocked.

    So 2025 is about rebuilding Britain.

    And rebuilding our NHS is the cornerstone of that.

    We will protect the principles we all cherish and that you all work to every day.

    Care – free at the point of use.

    Treatment according to need. Key principles.

    But to catapult the service into the future.

    We need an NHS reformed, from top to bottom.

    Millions of extra appointments signed, sealed and delivered with the plan we are launching today.

    National renewal in action.

    You know, people have long said we couldn’t do this.

    The wallowing in a fatalism about the potential of this country.

    The change we can deliver for working people.

    Well – this plan is a comprehensive rebuttal of that mindset.

    A National Health Service that treats patients more quickly. That is closer to their lives.

    Gives them a level of convenience that they take for granted in nearly every other service they use every day.

    Just think about, every day, with just few swipes of their phone millions of people buy food or clothes for their family. They book holidays. They even find love!

    There’s no good reason why a public, free at the point of use, NHS can’t deliver that kind of convenience.

    In fact – it must.

    And we talked about some of these this morning. We need an NHS hungry for innovation as you are at this centre.

    That is the only way to face up to the challenges of the future.

    The wonder of us living longer and longer.

    And with that hunger – together we will save countless lives.

    Improve care from where it is now, beyond belief.

    Do not doubt this can be done.

    A system like ours with vast amounts of patient data, with scale, with the extraordinary resilience of our NHS staff.

    We are well-placed for the AI revolution in healthcare.

    Trust me – that is coming.

    And Britain is a world leader.

    So we can do this.

    But first – we must confront the reality of what is needed.

    Because the NHS can’t become the national money pit.

    Productivity can’t bump along 11% lower than it was before the pandemic.

    Working people can’t be expected to subsidise the current level of care with ever rising taxes.

    That is the price of ducking reform – and I won’t stand for it.

    I believe in public service, I believe in the NHS, I will fight for it – day and night. But I will never stand for that.

    And look as many of you will know, and as we talked about this morning – my wife, my sister, my mum.

    They all worked or work for the NHS. And as you know nobody works in the NHS for an easy life – you know that and I know that.

    Indeed, I’ve said many, many times before – I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you today if it wasn’t for the NHS.

    Because my Mum had Still’s disease – she was diagnosed when she was eleven. And one of the things she was told was that she would never have children.

    Well the NHS never gave up on her. And that’s why I’m standing here today, so thank you to the NHS – as every family has a story like that to thank the NHS for.

    And every day, in this hospital and throughout the service NHS staff give their all to save lives and look after the families of other people.

    And then just get up the next day and just to do it all again. Every single day.

    So when I think about what they’ve been through over fourteen years.

    It makes me angry.

    I am angry – that you are working harder and harder yet the system just isn’t delivering results that we need for patients or for staff.

    That is the cut and dry argument for reform.

    And it’s not just about money.

    At the budget we invested over £25 billion in the National Health Service.

    A record amount, and rightly so over £1.8 billion since July on cutting waiting times – alone.

    And that’s investment that will deliver 40,000 extra appointments every single week, picking up on some of the techniques that you are using here.

    And that’s an outcome that is wanted by everyone. Wished for by everyone. But it’s only possible because of the difficult choices we confronted.

    But let me be crystal clear that money will not be used, not as it has been in the past just to paper over cracks.

    That’s the definition of the sticking plaster politics that we were elected to change.

    No, this is the year we roll up our sleeves and reform the NHS.

    A new era of convenience in care. Faster treatment – at your fingertips. Patients in control. An NHS fit for the future.

    It’s not just about giving patients greater flexibility over appointments or leveraging the power of the NHS App.

    And we are doing to do that.

    But there’s a bigger principle here.

    It’s about unlocking the huge untapped potential if we organise services around patient control.

    And you see it with Martha’s Rule which was really important.

    It’s about a shift in the balance of power away from a passive deference to doctors and towards patients being able to get that second opinion.

    Play a greater role in deciding their care and treatment.

    And the early results of Martha’s Rule are in.

    Lives of some of the sickest patients in our care:

    Transformed, extended, saved.

    And so it’s a rule that’s now being recognised as a potentially groundbreaking innovation.

    So look – across the NHS we will put patients in control of their care.

    And to meet that demand we will also move care closer to their lives.

    Shift treatment away from hospitals and centres.

    And deliver more care at their GPs, in their community, in their home.

    And you gave me some brilliant examples of what a difference that makes – shifting care towards people’s communities and their homes this morning when we were walking through what you do right here.

    Because as you know – this will make a massive difference to waiting times.

    If we can get more GPs consulting immediately with specialists. Diagnosing even more quickly than that will avoid an extra 800,000 unnecessary referrals and appointments – every single year.

    Another game-changer – community diagnostic centres.

    We will open them, more of them – and they will be seven days a week, twelve hours a day.

    So that if you need a scan or an X-ray, you get it done much more quickly – and at your convenience.

    That alone – will deliver 440,000 extra tests and scans every year.

    We’ll also let patients with long-term conditions monitor themselves at home. Give them the technology to do that.

    That will cut another half a million unnecessary appointments.

    We’ll also reform funding incentives.

    Focus our investment on what will actually cut waiting times.

    Far too much money is wasted on inefficient care. That has to stop. Because we can’t afford it.

    Artificial Intelligence will help us here as well.

    I’ve seen it in action at the hospital I was at the tail end of last year.

    AI-enhanced stethoscopes that can tell, literally in a heartbeat whether you’re at risk of cardiac failure.

    And just think about that.

    A patient saved, in an instant.

    From a possible future that they may have had, where they collapse, possibly more than once.

    Rushed, on trolleys, into acute services in a hospital. All of that avoided because AI was able to pick it up much earlier.

    Think of the impact not just on the individual patient, the person that might happen to, and of course their families, but also on the NHS.

    Artificial intelligence is a technology with almost unlimited power to cut waste, speed things up and save lives. And with this plan – the NHS will harness it properly.

    And finally – to cut waiting times as dramatically as possible our approach must be totally unburdened by dogma.

    Working people would expect nothing less.

    So today – I welcome a new agreement that will expand the relationship between the NHS and the private healthcare sector.

    Make the spaces, facilities and resources of private hospitals more readily available to the NHS.

    That’s more beds, more operations, more care – available to the NHS. Treating patients – free at the point of use. Targeted – at where we need them most.

    A partnership – in the national interest. Cutting waiting times, working for you. Delivering our plan for change.

    I know some people won’t like this, but I make no apologies.

    Change is urgent.

    I’m not interested in putting ideology before patients and I’m not interested in moving at the pace of excuses.

    All through this project that we have been involved in people have been saying – slow down…

    “You won’t win in every nation in Britain…”

    “You won’t deliver that plan…”

    They’ll say it again this year – I have no doubt about that.

    It’s that anthem of decline.

    But they’ve been wrong at every stage so far and they’ll be wrong again.

    Because this year – we will show that Britain can. We can change our country.

    Politics can be a force for good.

    We can unite the NHS behind a plan for reform.

    An NHS that is faster, easier and more convenient with waiting times – cut.

    Patients in control.

    Technology – at your service.

    And outstanding care in your community.

    That is the change we will deliver.

    Another step along the road to a country and a people…

    Strong, secure, confident.

    That the future will be better for their children.

    Thank you.