Speeches by Streeting.

“I think that, between us on this side of the table and the representation around that side of the table, there is a lot of possibility in terms of how we can redress that imbalance between health and social care and health and local government. By conviction, we will definitely do that and see the sort of improvements …”

“Stephen Kinnock will be starting that shortly in the new year. I do recognise, by the way, the fundamental point you are making: pharmacy is under enormous pressure. I have been balancing things up when thinking about financial allocations. Before I even get to where I want to be on community pharmacy, which is even mo…”

“As I say, now that we’ve got the budget set, we will be consulting with Community Pharmacy England shortly, in the new year. I do want to reassure pharmacists across the country that we are taking into account the enormous pressures they are under when we think about allocations, so that we can stabilise the system and…”

“The first thing I would say is there is plenty of work to go around. There really is. What I am picking up—I have done for some time now—is, effectively, a competition between general practice and pharmacy, because people are worried about their own bottom line and their own financial sustainability. Whereas I see more…”

“Because of the choices that the Chancellor has made, particularly on protecting the state pension through the triple lock, and even taking into account the decision she has taken on winter fuel allowance, pensioners will still be better off this winter than they were last winter and will be better off next winter furth…”

“Yes, we came in with a clear plan to deliver those 40,000 more appointments. We are delivering. I said that we would deliver 40,000 more appointments every week—2 million extra appointments a year. I will commit now to coming back to this Committee after the first anniversary—well, I will be back here anyway. It’s not …”

“Financial flows and incentives are really important in this system. First, for the extra evening and weekend working, we will pay staff overtime and we will make provisions for employers to be able to do that. Secondly, in terms of performance improvement across the NHS, we will build in some capital incentive for NHS …”

“I’ll send you the bill!”

“Demand management is really important. I cannot say this enough. The shift from hospital to community is so important because alongside the extra capacity to meet demand on the elective waiting list now, we need to manage demand. That is the variable that I am keeping my eye on in terms of getting to the 18-week target…”

“We were really pleased to work with our friends at the DWP on the “Get Britain Working” White Paper. They did the lion’s share of the work and we played our part, helping them out, which is how I see this relationship. The NHS does have a contribution to make. As you mentioned, we have 2.8 million people who are econom…”

“I would be happy to send Ministers along to answer any further questions!”

“Merry Christmas and happy new year. I will see you in the new year.”

“I can stand by very strongly the sense that, because the state pension is rising in the way that it is, and because of the decisions the Chancellor has taken to protect the poorest pensioners, she has taken a decision that, I admit, is unpopular with people who have lost the winter fuel allowance, but it is not one tha…”

“That is a great question. First, in overall terms, one of the reasons why our outcomes are so poor relative to other countries’ is that we do not diagnose fast enough, so earlier access to diagnostics will lead to faster diagnosis and better outcomes. That is not just good in terms of patients, their life chances and t…”

“I will bring in Tom very quickly in that case, but the final thing I will say is that I have spent a lot of time, in recent weeks and months, with victims of the NHS—whether they are victims of maternity scandals, of poor care at the wrong time or of mental health scandals—and it is a very sobering experience. If victi…”

“We could do a lot worse than taking the NHS to people. One of the things I was really encouraged by was actually in your neck of the woods—in Birmingham. I went and saw one of the diagnostic vans that is out and about doing screening, specifically because the NHS concluded that they were more likely to find the right p…”

“Yes, we will come back to you. I will bring in Tom, who will obviously have a perspective on this.”

“That is a very good challenge, and we need to think quite deeply about it.”

“I think that is really important. There are some very obvious things that we can do on the victim support side of things, in helping victims of domestic violence—not exclusively, but predominantly women and children—and providing them with the support they need. Recovering from violent relationships or from a violent a…”

“Around the Cabinet table, I do feel a degree of discomfort, which I described in my NHS Providers speech, knowing that every penny I got for the NHS is a penny that could have gone to places that are often social determinants of ill health. That is why we have a moral duty as the national health service to spend the mo…”