NHS will remain free at point of use ‘as long as I’m alive’, new health secretary Victoria Atkins vows
The new health secretary has promised the NHS will remain free at the point of use as long as she is “alive” as the service gears up for another difficult winter.
Victoria Atkins, who replaced Steve Barclay in Rishi Sunak’s most recent reshuffle, made the commitment while discussing the “unique” pressures the NHS faces every year.
“We have 11 million inpatients a year so the scale of the NHS is unique around the world,” she told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.
“It is also unique because of the very fact that our care is free at the point of use. And that will continue for as long as I’m alive.”
Her commitment came as the NHS continues to suffer acute pressures, including a waiting list of an estimated 6.5 million people at the end of September and a high number of staff vacancies.
The difficulties facing the NHS has generated questions about its future, with the British Social Attitudes survey finding that the British public is the unhappiest it has ever been with the health service – but that it still supports it in principle.
Ms Atkins admitted there would be a “winter crisis” in the health service over the coming weeks and months as temperatures drop and people contract more illnesses.
She said the government had started preparing for the winter with an urgent and emergency care plan and that, having met its target to recruit 50,000 more nurses, it was “beginning to meet” the target of 5,000 more beds in hospital in a bid to cut delays.
File pic
Asked about the fact that three coroners had written to her to warn that ambulance delays were already causing unnecessary deaths, Ms Atkins said she was “very concerned” but that 800 new ambulances would be brought into the service.
She also claimed that category two ambulance times – which cover urgent calls for problems including strokes, and demand a response time of 18 minutes – had already improved.
Sir Trevor read out statistics from NHS England which showed that in 2014, the total number of people who had to wait 12 hours for hospital admission after a decision had been taken to admit them was 489.
In October this year, the average number of people who had to wait over 12 hours stood at 1,440 – nearly three times as many, he said.
Asked what she would do to solve the problem, Ms Atkins said hospital discharge was key.
“What we are doing to address this is almost looking at the end rather than the beginning, because if we can move people out of the system more quickly, then the flow through the hospitals is much smoother and quicker.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Atkins was asked about how the NHS would fill 121,000 vacancies if the UK looks to cut immigration, with statistics showing that in June this year 265,000 people in its workforce came from abroad.
Read more:
Norovirus: Winter vomiting bug cases far higher this year, warns NHS
Nurses’ union calls for pay negotiations to be reopened to anger of other health groups
Ms Atkins said that while those from overseas who worked in the NHS were “incredibly important to the system”, “immigration as a whole is too high”.
Last week, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that net migration hit a record high of 745,000 in 2022 – revised up from a previous estimate of 606,000.
Ms Atkins said the government’s long-term workforce plan will see more nurses and doctors in the UK trained and retained in the system.
“We are working across government to tackle immigration because we understand it’s of great concern, but we can do this in a way that protects the NHS,” she added.
The SEC responded shortly after the issuers filed effective registration amendments for staked SOL and Ether exchange-traded funds.
IMF questions Pakistan’s plan to allocate 2,000 megawatts of electricity for Bitcoin mining amid energy shortages and budget talks.
There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.
John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.
This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.
Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”
A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.
The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.
This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.
The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.
While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
From March: How will the UK scale up defence?
A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.
The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.
“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”
Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.
The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.
Read more:
Trump to double tariffs on steel imports
Why stockpiling vapes could be dangerous
Last hospital in northern Gaza out of service
PM Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey on a nuclear submarine earlier this year. Pic: Crown Copyright 2025
On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.
Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.
He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.
“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.
“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway