Speeches by Streeting.

“Part of what Stephen announced yesterday is embedding urgent care into the contract. However, I think we are realistic that contract reform will be an ongoing process. You have heard me say before that there are lots of problems in the NHS that are not about money, and that are about modernisation, getting more bang fo…”

“Nope. We are not going to cut—”

“That is a decision for Parliament.”

“The hon. Lady has offered a political opinion, not a clinical judgment. By that logic, we would not have any medicine for children and young people; we would never have undertaken clinical trials or studies, because we would have judged that children and young people could not take part in them. That is objectively not…”

“We are currently doing financial planning with the system, as we speak, as part of the medium-term planning framework. We are getting returns from across the system back now, which will help to inform where we are on investment in dentistry. And when Jim next comes back to the Committee—because Sam and I did not make t…”

“No, it is definitely not the end. This is part of it. What I want to see is consistent improvement in the quality and availability of NHS dentistry over time. We are starting from such a low bar. On our manifesto commitment to deliver 700,000 urgent emergency dentistry appointments, money has been available. ICBs have …”

“We are working on our workforce plan at the moment. As I said earlier, we are taking a bit more time with that because we want to get it right. This is consistent with the shift we want to see from hospital to community. We want to see more community-based teams. I want people aspiring to a career in the NHS, whether a…”

“I think you ask a fair set of questions and we will go away, look at that in detail and come back to you.”

“And we have got the new MMRV vaccine, which means that from January the MMR vaccine will include chicken pox for the first time. There are lots of positive developments, and that could also point to why there are savings if, for example, you have more conditions confined to a single dose. I will go and kick the tyres o…”

“There is going to be a cultural challenge there. One BMA representative I spoke to in the context of the additional specialty places said, “Look, we want to know where these places are. What we don’t want is loads more geriatricians in north Wales.” Notwithstanding the fact that I am responsible for the NHS in England,…”

“I will take the hon. Member’s question in three parts. First, the opinion polling that she mentions shows that people in this country are overwhelmingly kind, and they want to ensure that trans people, and LGBT people more broadly, are treated with kindness, compassion and inclusion. Secondly, I do not dismiss the opin…”

“Let me go away with Ashley Dalton and kick the tyres on all of that. On one hand, particularly when you spell it out not in percentage terms but in actual spend terms, that says to me that we need to take a good look. I would expect that across a whole range of areas, with the emphasis we are putting on productivity an…”

“I will come back to that in a second. I am about to set out what we want to do with the modern service framework, which is linked to that. I think I have said this before: I am personally uncomfortable with the extent to which the hospice sector is reliant on voluntary donations as opposed to statutory funding. We unde…”

“Regardless of whether it is in the medium-term planning framework, we need to give this the specific focus it requires and make sure that we have got resourcing. For example, we have seen a 45% decrease in health visiting numbers over the best part of a decade. Those sorts of things do have an impact. To make sure that…”

“On that, Danny, to put all those positive numbers in context, we are not back to where we were in terms of pre-pandemic levels. That is the initial bar we have to set ourselves. I report progress without wanting to sound defensive or complacent, because your central challenge is absolutely the right one.”

“If we take where we have been ahead of this winter, we have delivered over 17 million flu vaccines for this season, which is 170,000 more than this time last year; 60,000 more NHS staff than last year are getting their jab; and we are on track to deliver the 5 percentage point increase in flu vaccine uptake in healthca…”

“Absolutely. I want to be up front about the fact that one of the things I am worried about, particularly in relation to the hospice sector, is that in common with the wider voluntary sector we are seeing real pressure not only in terms of costs, but in the ability to raise money through regular individual giving, which…”

“Well, it is a mixed picture on vaccination.”

“That is why you do it in real time, Ben. I think having that kind of approach is the right way of thinking about it.”

“So it does have an impact on the opportunity cost, as you suggest.”