During the election campaign we meant it when we said that the NHS was facing the biggest crisis in its history.
When we said that patients are being failed in their care every day, it wasn’t political rhetoric, it was a reality that millions of people face every day.
Successive governments have refused to acknowledge this simple fact: to cure a disease, it must first be diagnosed.
This government will be honest and serious about the challenges facing our country.
From today, the Department’s line is that the NHS is not working.
This is the experience of patients who are not getting the care they deserve, and of staff working in the NHS who know that despite their best efforts it is not enough.
The NHS saved my life when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer.
Today I can start to pay down that debt by saving the NHS.
I have just spoken by phone to the BMA’s Junior Doctors’ Committee and can announce that talks to end their industrial action will begin next week.
During the election campaign, we promised to begin negotiations urgently, and that is exactly what we are doing.
This Government has a mandate from millions of voters who want reform and change for the NHS so that it can serve us again when we need it most.
It will take time – we never expected the NHS to improve overnight.
And it will take teamwork: rebuilding our health service will be a mission of my Department, of every member of this Government and of the 1.4 million people who work in the NHS.
We have done this before. During the last Administration, we worked with NHS staff to deliver the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction rates in history. We have done this before and we will do it again.
That work begins today.
