Pandemic not entirely to blame for the state of the NHS, Health Secretary admits

Steve Barclay yesterday said that healthcare delays and long waits in A&E were “predominantly” down to coronavirus, but added that it was not completely to blame.

“Of course, there were challenges going into the pandemic. That’s why we’re targeting through the long-term plan significant additional investment into healthcare,” he said on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Jeremy Hunt announced additional funding for the NHS in his autumn statement but critics have warned it may not be enough amid growing pressures and soaring inflation.

Mr Barclay admitted the NHS is under “severe pressure”.

“That is why despite the very real challenges in the autumn statement that the Chancellor faced he prioritised funding for health.”

In his budget last week, Mr Hunt announced the health service will receive an extra £3.3 billion in each of the next two years while £4.7 billion will go into social care.

However, the Government has also faced criticism for the decision to push back long-promised social care reforms to October 2025.

The reforms include an £86,000 cap on personal care cost contributions and an expanded means test that is more generous than the existing one, which had been due to come into effect from October 2023.

Mr Barclay said it was a “difficult decision to delay” but told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that current circumstances had forced the decision.

The Health Secretary insisted that the Government had not abandoned its mission to solve the funding issue for social care.

“The Chancellor himself – when doing my job as health secretary – was very committed to these reforms,” Mr Barclay said.

That’s why it has been a difficult decision to delay but what we recognise is we need more care packages in social care.”

Pressed on how the delay could be justified, he said: “Well, the local government bodies have themselves asked us to delay because, obviously, they were concerned about such a major change at a time when, as a consequence of a pandemic, the market is under such pressure within the care system.”

On Sky News, he also signalled plans to scale back the number of NHS targets.

“There is a place for targets but if everything is a priority, nothing’s a priority,” he said as he responded to a report in the Mail on Sunday suggesting the Government was eyeing up a “bonfire” of NHS red tape and targets.

He said that at a local level officials are “better able to tailor the priorities for their local needs”.

“No-one is suggesting we don’t have any targets,” he said.

Gary Smith, GMB general secretary, called the Health Secretary “deluded” over the need to fund the NHS and care services.

He told the BBC: “Why didn’t they tax non-doms, why didn’t they tax the richest people in this country with the broadest shoulders who pay no tax at all, what have they done about bankers’ bonuses?

“The Tory government has made ideological decisions for over a decade about cutting services and that’s what has left services on their knees and this is not hyperbole.

“People are dying because of cuts to services so I find that interview utterly dishonest and frankly the minister is deluded.”