Yahoo News Wes Streeting opens up on nan's cancer care in Merseyside as he shares NHS plan
Wes Streeting spoke about his nan's cancer treatment in Merseyside as he addressed concerns about Labour's plans to use private healthcare to ease NHS waiting times.
The Labour Shadow Health Secretary spoke to the ECHO on Thursday (June 27), with the general election a week away. Boasting a healthy lead in the opinion polls, Labour appears to be on course for government, with Sir Keir Starmer expected to be the next Prime Minister.
Cutting NHS waiting times is one of Labour's six 'first steps for change' outlined in its manifesto. As Shadow Health Secretary, Mr Streeting has said that a Labour government would use the private sector to do so.
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NHS waiting lists in England rose to 7.6m people at the end of April. The MP for Ilford North in Greater London said that Labour's plan to use private provision would ease that.
Asked by the ECHO whether such an approach would threaten the long-term future of the NHS as a free public service, Mr Streeting said: "People right across Merseyside know the difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government. The last Labour government delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction ever in the history of the NHS.
"With the country's support, we can do it again. Under 14 years of the Conservatives what we've seen open up is a two-tier health service, where those who can afford it are paying to go private and working class people are being left behind. I'm not prepared to see working class people waiting longer for care.
"That's why we will use spare capacity in the private sector, give it to people on NHS terms, so they don't have to worry about the bill. While we do that, we're going to rebuild capacity in the NHS so that no-one ever feels forced to go private and, in the future, the NHS won't need to pay for people to go private either."
He continued: "I think we've got a really strong record on the NHS, but even more importantly we've got a great plan for the future. To deliver 40,000 more appointments every week to cut waiting lists, to double the number of scanners so we can diagnose earlier and treat faster, mental health support in every school, mental health hubs in every community and 8,500 extra mental health workers to cut mental health waiting lists.
"That's as well as 700,000 emergency dentistry appointments, while we reform NHS dentistry and get thousands more GPs trained and red tape cut, so we can bring back the family doctor.
"Any one of those policies would make a real difference to people in Liverpool. Taken together, they represent a serious plan to get our NHS back on its feet and make it fit for the future."
Labour has faced scrutiny over how it would deliver meaningful change for Britain and fix the country's creaking public services without raising more taxes. The party has stated it will not raise income tax, VAT or national insurance, instead choosing to charge VAT on private school fees and to close non-dom loopholes, among other funding sources.
Asked whether Labour would be able to fix problems in the NHS without increasing certain taxes, Mr Streeting said: "All of the policies in our manifesto are fully costed and fully funded - promises we can keep and promises the country can afford. We've chosen fair methods to fund them, like clamping down on tax avoidance, closing the non-dom tax loopholes, closing the tax breaks enjoyed by private schools and by private equity.
"We think those are fairer choices than the ones made by the Conservatives, who have clobbered working people with higher taxes. We're not going to make the same mistake."
Mr Streeting, who is a cancer survivor himself, paid tribute to staff at Merseyside's Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, which has sites in Aintree, Liverpool and Wirral. Mr Streeting's nan received life-extending cancer treatment from Clatterbridge before she died last year.
He said: "For all the challenges in the NHS, we've got some brilliant staff who work in it. My grandmother died late last year and this weekend would have been her birthday.
"The staff at Clatterbridge were absolutely amazing in the life-extending cancer treatment that they gave her. She had to travel across to Clatterbridge and she would definitely want me to say thank you.
"It is a reminder to me of how important the NHS is for all of us - why we can't afford to lose it, why we can't risk leaving it to another term of Conservative government and why it's so important that people turn out and vote Labour next Thursday.
"Unless people vote for change, we won't be able to deliver it."
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