Just Health Sec Steve Barclay having an awful time on the morning round

talk to me about the covert inquiry why would the government take its own inquiry to court in a case that it's almost certainly going to lose well the cabinet office is is leading on that and wants to clarify the legal position in terms of what messages are disclosed obviously there are issues in terms of people's privacy and and their wider rights in terms of what message may be sent but anything to do with the inquiry I think there's a recognition we hugely value the inquiry as you say we have set up as a government we have set up the inquiry we massively value well the camera office wants to just clarify the legal position about what is it yes the chair to do that well of course we trust it the Covenant office wants to just clarify the legal position around their messages and what is and is not in scope but the the work of the inquiry is massively important that's why we're setting up and people are very much looking forward to it of course we have a fantastic Judiciary uh World leading Judiciary uh the common office wants to just clarify uh the legal scope in terms of what is it's an Innovative area uh to test and and that's something they're coming off wants to clarify I'm reminded of Boris Johnson standing outside Downing Street when he became a prime minister what we're talking about four years ago and he said I've got a plan for social care the conservatives are going to fix it and here we are 165 000 vacancies at millions of hours of of care needs not being met every every year and still no full plan lots of little ideas but not one big solution well there's there isn't one single answer there's a whole range of things uh we're doing but you know people can't have it both ways for example we added social care to the shortage occupation list to attract more people internationally to help to address some of the challenges in in vacancy we had the announcement as I say in April the extra 250 million going in to look cat professional qualifications but your critics says it's not enough that that's not the investment we had the investment in the Autumn statement up to 7.5 billion uh pounds there's a centerpiece in terms of that commitment to better integrating Health and Social care so the razor package of measures it's like you've just come into government you've been there for 13 years and we have the longest NHS waitings time waiting times and the well the longest waiting lists since records began I mean it's not something you can possibly be proud of or by you know you're saying well we're doing a little bit here and we're doing a little bit there they've got to the record numbers on your watch well we've had a pandemic that's had a massive consequence and if you look at say for example waiting lists of zero we started before the pandemic of waiting lists of 4.6 million people I see that you also disclosed forgive me two MPS at the NHS in England had missed its Target to ensure that all patients who'd been waiting 18 months for an operation in hospital would be treated by April what's going on oh well we've got to buy over 90 uh well we could it buy over 90 we got it to under 11 000 by at the end of March if you look at that compared to for example Wales where it was around 70 000 patients waiting 18 months in labor run Wales and we've got a population in England 18 times the size of Wales so a huge amount of progress was made by a very very narrow margin we got it down by over 90 and that's thanks to a huge amount of work being done up and down the country by so surgical team so we've got the recovery plan the elective recovery plan we're rolling out their diagnostic Centers we've got over 160 that we're opening we've got new surgical hubs that were opening to boost our capacity we know there's a backlog from the pandemic we cleared almost all the 78-week weights by the end of March there was as I say just under 11 000 left which we're focused on but it shows the plan is working we've cleared the two-year weights in the summer got that below 2000 we cleared over 90 by the end of the margin now we're focusing on those over 52 weeks there's still a big number that you're gonna have to sort out before the next election 7.2 million people are still on the waiting list that's a big number well it is and of course not all of those are waiting for impatience about four fifths so those are waiting for outpatient appointments about a fifth of impatience but it is it's a consequence of the pandemic all health systems are facing real challenges in terms of those uh backlogs the lockdown was supposed to save the NHS you you're now saying that the lockdown has had a massive impact on the NHS it's damaged the NHS it's led to more people waiting for an operation or a referral in the NHS well I think there's two different things the lockdown was about tackling covid which was the The Burning platform that the country was facing and other Health Systems around the NHS that was literally your slogan indeed in terms of the pressure of covid and we saw uh one of the the big impacts we've had in terms of inpatients into hospital has been how many of those patients have covered so it put huge pressure on the NHS but there has been a consequence in terms of the backlogs not just in England that's something that is being faced across the UK but also across the globe this time next week next Wednesday another strike another big strike bit by the the BMA who are saying there could be more industrial action throughout the summer are you making any progress in solving this dispute well we had three weeks of talks with the junior doctors and the government set out a a fair offer I I don't think uh the junior doctors refusing to move from their demand for 35 pay rise is a reasonable one uh it's not the sort of pay rise that most of your viewers I'm sure themselves are receiving and so I don't think 35 is reasonable we hugely value the work that our Junior doctors do the pressures that they've been under from the pandemic The Wider pressures that the NHS has been under so we massively value the work of the junior doctors but I don't think a 35 pay a percent pay rise is a reasonable demand what's reasonable you always be removed from that uh and and that's really what we need to see some movement on what would be reasonable what would you be prepared to move on well I'm not going to negotiate and you wouldn't expect me to uh in public when was the last time you met representatives for junior doctors and nurses a couple of weeks ago we've had uh we had three weeks of talks with the junior doctors well I don't think an offer of a 35 for pay rise is what your viewers uh would be receiving themselves for these numbers to come down we do and and that's why we're keen to work with them we've had talks over a series of weeks uh with them I think we need to have a place there well I don't think 35 as a pay rise is a reasonable mask it's still a long way apart so there is a distance apart the government made them uh an offer we want to work constructively uh with them we hugely value the contribution that Junior doctors make and we recognize the the real pressures that they've faced as a consequence of the pandemic but also the pressures that the wider NHS is under okay um as I said you're still a well you said you're still a distance apart what would you give them how much would you give them I'm not going to negotiate live on air K and I don't think you would uh expect me to ask you perfectly visa to last but the equally reasonable for me to say that that's not something we're going to do live uh on air

Channel: PoliticsJOE

Views: 106,762

Keywords: Politics, UK politics, British politics, Parliament, Government, Westminster, news, breaking news, conversation, politics news, politicsjoe, joe songs, boris johnson song, boris johnson speech, keir starmer song, keir starmer speech, new media, novara, rishi sunak, labour party, conservative, tory party, conservatism, brexit, supercut, compilation, mashup, steve barclay morning round, tory minister grilled by journalist, tory minister rinsed, political news

Id: KuQQq6jaXb0

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023