Wes Streeting resigns as health secretary - his letter in full
Key takeaways
- The results are in and I am pleased to report that I have delivered against the ambitious targets you set for me when I became your Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
- The only question that matters in government is whether we leave our successors a better situation than we inherited.
- The National Health Service is the embodiment of all that is best about Britain and our values.
Why this matters: a developing story that could shape the day's news cycle.
BBCDear Prime Minister,
The results are in and I am pleased to report that I have delivered against the ambitious targets you set for me when I became your Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Today's figures confirm that we surpassed our waiting times target despite strikes, and that waiting lists fell by 110,000 in March - the biggest monthly drop outside of Covid since 2008 - meaning that we are on track to achieve the fastest improvement in NHS waiting times in history.
The only question that matters in government is whether we leave our successors a better situation than we inherited. Ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes are now the fastest in five years. A&E waiting times are improving, with four-hour waiting figures also the best in five years. We've recruited 2,000 more GPs and satisfaction has risen from 60 per cent to 74.5 per cent since we came to office. We hit our target of recruiting 8,500 mental health staff three years early. We've achieved this at the same as balancing the books for the first time in nine years and smashing the 2 per cent NHS productivity target by achieving 2.8 per cent, which means the investment we're putting in goes further and that the public can have greater confidence that their money is being well-spent.