‘Tough decisions are tough decisions’: Starmer defends winter fuel payment cut

Hugh Pym
Health editor

Image source, PA Media

We’ve just been hearing Starmer speak about a report into the state of the NHS, which is due to be published on Thursday.

His government’s
immediate message on taking office was that the NHS is broken, with Health
Secretary Wes Streeting arguing that patients and staff had been let down.

To
follow that up, the surgeon and former health minister Lord Darzi was asked to
carry out a rapid review.

As one source put it, this was to provide the
diagnosis so that a longer term cure could be worked out.

Some of his
report has been put out early by the government ,with eye catching findings on
long waiting lists for children and Darzi’s conclusion that there were “real
concerns” over the ability of the NHS to deliver quality care.

But there will be much more
in the report to be published in the next few days. What will it say, for
example, about over stretched GP services? Or retention and recruitment of
staff?

It will undoubtedly set out more problems and challenges. The question
is how long Labour can keep blaming the Conservatives and when scrutiny will
turn to their own performance against NHS targets.