06 Oct Is this a party or what?
The moods at the Conservative and Labour party conferences couldn’t have been more different: a jubilant Labour party celebrated the Government’s own goal over the mini-budget, while the crestfallen Conservatives planned collective punishment for the goalkeeper that let the goal in.
Labour now think they can beat Tories on the economy. That’s not to say they will let up on the NHS. Putting someone as charismatic as Wes Streeting as the face of health shows they are serious and credible on health. With the service in crisis, it’s also an open goal against the party in charge for over a decade. There will be no major restructure, we are assured, under Labour, and they see ICBs as the right vehicle for delivery. They also don’t want national plans or strategies that will barely see the light of day. When it comes to the capacity crisis they are looking beyond doctors and dentists to nurses and allied health professionals to help tackle this.
The most telling point is that we were told the shadow health team has an open door policy when it comes to listening to the challenges that exist in the system. This, coupled with their pragmatic approach above, isn’t a team looking to score political points (although they will), it’s a team preparing for government.
While the politics of the NHS are a wedge issue, policies are broadly aligned. Wes Streeting supported the Government’s position to scrap the introduction of a sugar tax on behalf of low income families, rather than nanny state reasons. And both sides promise no more structural changes to the NHS.
The Conservatives have doubled down on what they had already announced in health: Therese Coffey is committed to the ABCDs (Ambulances, Backlog, Care, Doctors & Dentists), though she acknowledged she could have gone through the whole alphabet. Robert Jenrick, Minister of State and de facto number two in the Department of Health and Social Care, said he would add E for economy. He publicly backed the Life Science Vision.
The Government has also proactively shown an appetite for investing in technology; while acknowledging funding the NHS means a bottomless pit, they are of the clear view this investment is about putting the NHS on a sustainable footing for the future. At the time of writing the Ministerial portfolios had not been fully announced however Robert Jenrick made a very clear pitch for life sciences. It remains to be seen if he’s told to focus on the ABCDs instead….