Mr Streeting has promised to give patients a voice in fundamental NHS reform (Image: Getty)
Health Secretary Wes Streeting admits millions of fed-up patients are no longer confident the NHS will be there when they need it.
His astonishing appraisal of how a “broken” system in a spiral of chaos is failing those it was set up to serve comes as 7.5 million currently languish on waiting lists.
After years of crippling strikes, cancelled operations and appointments, eye-watering waste, inefficiency, and bureaucratic box ticking, public satisfaction now stands at a record low.
In his first major assessment of public proposals to bring the NHS off life support and back to fitness Mr Streeting promised long-suffering patients will be given a voice – and be heard – for the very first time.
He told the Express: “Anyone who works in or uses the NHS can see it is broken [but] while the NHS is broken, it is not beaten.
“For most people I speak to, their priority is an NHS that is there for them when they need it, like it used to be.
“I’m appealing to Express readers to join the conversation, share your experiences, and help us build an NHS that we can once again be proud of.”
There are now 7.5 million people on NHS waiting lists (Image: Getty)
The NHS was founded in 1948 by Labour giant Nye Bevan to provide healthcare from cradle to grave, free at the point of use for everyone.
It has an annual budget of £190 billion and is Europe’s biggest employer with 1.3 million staff, but is beset by constant crises and more than 100,000 key posts including doctors, nurses, paediatricians, lab technicians and cleaners remain unfilled.
Patient satisfaction has sunk to an all-time low of just 29%, driven in part by the inability of millions to get timely treatment.
Long-suffering patients and their families were held to ransom by two years of crippling strikes that saw 1.5 million appointments and operations cancelled. In the gold-standard British Social Attitudes Survey more than two-thirds give long waits as the reason for displeasure.
More than 100,000 suggestions have now been submitted after Mr Streeting , 41, issued an SOS to help ease pressure on overrun services.
The central theme of tens of thousands of common sense suggestions submitted to the Change NHS website is to put sound judgment ahead of box-ticking.
Patients want to see the entire NHS – including 215 hospital trusts – open and operate all services around-the-clock.
Ideas include A&E waits to be displayed in real-time, a ban on charging for any hospital car parking, paying to see a doctor for speedy access, and fines for missed appointments, and a guarantee doctors, nurses and paramedics have their training paid for by taxpayers in return for a guarantee they will stay with the health service for at least a decade after qualifying.
The NHS has a dedicated equality, diversity, and inclusion improvement plan in which bosses are measured and marked against objectives.
Some patients are furious taxpayers are forking out more than £100 million a year for translation and interpretation so services can be understood in foreign languages, while others are incensed at relentless diversity drive they claim prioritises political correctness over patients.
To the astonishment of many struggling to be seen, some trusts insist on using the phrase “birthing person” to describe a pregnant woman and use phrases like “pregnant people” and “service users” to describe pregnant women.
More than two-thirds of patients say long waits are the reason for their dissatisfaction (Image: Getty)
Karol Sikora, 76, the world renowned oncologist, former NHS cancer consultant, and Daily Express columnist, was born just one month before the NHS was founded.
He said: “I’ve spent almost 50-years in medicine [and] I can honestly say, in the developed world, I cannot name a more dysfunctional and ineffective way of delivering healthcare than the NHS – it simply does not work. Until the hard questions are asked, the health service will limp on. Sticking plaster after sticking plaster, all leaving the fundamental issues untouched.”
The cry for help is the first time the public has been given a say on NHS reform in its 76-year history.
Writing exclusively for the Express Mr Streeting said ideas will help shape a 10 Year Health Plan, set to be published in the spring, which aims to shift healthcare from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
The strength of feeling among those who have witnessed its rapid deterioration is unequivocal.
On the official “ideas for change website”, where suggestions can be posted, one patient said: “We get fined in this country for speeding, parking incorrectly, not paying for public transport and a host of other things.
“Not showing up to NHS appointments stretches the system and directly affects other people’s health. A fining system should definitely be in place. It’s great to offer a free service, but abuse shouldn’t be tolerated.”
Another added: “As such a high proportion of patients do not pay for their prescriptions it is ludicrous to be handing out free aspirin, laxatives, and other medicines. This must be a huge financial burden to the nation.”
Ministers have been clear that cash alone will not be enough to tackle the catalogue of problems crippling the NHS.
At doctor’s surgeries across Britain, the front door to the NHS, millions are being failed and care compromised by crumbling surgeries and obsolete computer systems, according to the Royal College of GPs. The RCGP, which represents more than 54,000 family doctors, said the number of patients per fully qualified GP now stands at 2,280.
Sir David Haslam, the former chairman of the drug-rationing body Nice, said: “The present consultation on the future of the NHS is more than welcome, but a critical question is not being considered. The Government’s stated hopes that the NHS shifts its focus from analogue to digital, from hospital to community and from sickness to prevention have all been aspirations for at least 20-years. But they haven’t happened. Why not? What were the blocks? If we don’t understand why previous plans have failed, history is surely doomed to repeat itself.”
More than 10,000 ideas to fix the foundations of the NHS have already been submitted on the official Change NHS website, which has been visited more than 1.2 million times.
Priorities include cracking down on waste, boosting staff retention, and using the latest technology to make services efficient and save cash.
Those carried forward will be used to help make the NHS “fit for the future”.
East End born Mr Streeting was diagnosed with cancer in 2021 after routine tests, initially for kidney stones, revealed kidney cancer. He was given the all-clear the same year after an early diagnosis and successful operation to remove the infected organ.
He said: “The NHS saved my life when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. I want the NHS to be there for all of us when we need it, which means it has to change.
“We want to hear what’s on your wish list. Together, we can help make the NHS fit for the future – this is the moment to have your say as part of our Plan for Change.”
Visit to submit your ideas.