Wes Streeting vowed to fix ‘broken’ NHS but critics say he failed to deliver

Wes Streeting’s 22 months in office was characterised by relentless media interviews, newspaper editorials and Department of Health and Social Care press releases. They portrayed a dynamic health secretary who was clearing up the mess he inherited in the NHS, pushing ahead with radical changes and making progress on what matters most to patients – accessing care when they need it. Having initially declared the NHS “broken” – by the Conservatives – it is six months since he first declared that the health service was now, on his watch, “on the road to recovery” – a claim he has made regularly since. He included the gist of it again – a sort of greatest hits collection – in his resignation letter to Keir Starmer at lunchtime on Thursday. The NHS’s target for reducing patients’ waits for planned hospital treatment in England? “Surpassed … the biggest monthly drop outside of Covid since 2008 … We are on track to achieve the fastest improvement in NHS waiting times in history.” Ambulance response times for strokes and heart attacks? “Now the fastest in five years.” A&E waiting times? “Improving, with four-hour waiting figures also the best in five years.” And so on. It was a highly selective reflection of his record. …