'How dare you!' Streeting tears into Rishi Sunak over 'abysmal failures' as he warns NHS 'must modernise or die'
Wes Streeting has criticised Rishi Sunak for "abysmal failures", pledging to allocate an extra £1.1bn to the NHS
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Wes Streeting has criticised Rishi Sunak for "abysmal failures", pledging to allocate an extra £1.1bn to the NHS.
Asking: "How dare you?", the Shadow Health Secretary accused the Prime Minister of "exploiting" problems, rather than solving them.
Addressing the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Streeting said: "7.7 million people waiting. The longest waiting lists ever.
"And the audacity of the fifth Conservative Prime Minister in 13 years blaming NHS staff for the Tories’ abysmal failure.
Asking: "How dare you?", the Shadow Health Secretary accused the Prime Minister of "exploiting" problems, rather than solving them
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"Rishi Sunak - how dare you?
"There is a window of opportunity for negotiations before the next round of strikes takes place. A serious Prime Minister would take it.
"But this is his government in a nutshell - problems are there to be exploited, rather than solved. Meanwhile, patients are left waiting."
He added: "That’s why a Labour government will take immediate action to cut waiting lists.
"We’ll provide an extra £1.1bn to help the NHS beat the backlog, with extra clinics at evenings and weekends - providing two million more appointments each year.
"Faster treatment for patients. Extra pay for staff. The first step to cut waiting lists and beat the Tory backlog."
He claimed that Labour will deliver "700,000 extra appointments each year, get more dentists into the communities that need them most, and make sure that everyone who needs an NHS dentist can get one".
Streeting warned that the NHS must "modernise or die".
The MP, who himself recieved cancer treatment on the NHS, told the conference hall: "I argue that our NHS must modernise or die, not as a threat but a choice.
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"The crisis really is that existential. When I look at leading health systems across the world, the fundamental problem with the NHS becomes obvious.
"We have an NHS that gets to people too late. A hospital-based system geared towards late diagnosis and treatment, delivering poorer outcomes at greater cost.
"An analogue system in a digital age. A sickness service, not a health service."