Health and Adult Social Care Reform

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

That is an excellent question. Having put in place funding to ensure that there are 1,000 more GPs on the frontline before April, and having announced just before Christmas a significant uplift for general practice, I hope that in the first six months of this Government, we have sent the strong message to people who aspire to long careers in medicine that general practice has a huge role to play in the NHS in the 21st century. It is an exciting place to be, but I recognise that we have to fix the front door to the NHS to make it more attractive. The situation is even worse than my hon. Friend has described, because when the Conservatives left government, there were qualified GPs unable to find jobs, at a time when patients were unable to find GPs. We got to work on that issue within weeks of taking office, and we will do more over the next 12 months.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is good to hear the latest announcements on overhauling the increasingly costly care for older and disabled people, and I very much welcome what the Secretary of State has said. I understand that this will happen through a three-year review, and that we will be clearer on the plan to introduce this in 2028. Health is devolved to Northern Ireland, but thousands of care packages in Northern Ireland are not fulfilled. What can he do to assist Northern Ireland in achieving its goals? Goals that are set here for England and the United Kingdom need to be in place in Northern Ireland as well.

[Wes Streeting]

The ministerial team and I have enjoyed working with counterparts in the devolved Governments over the last six months, and we will continue to do that. Thanks to the decisions that the Chancellor took in the Budget, we see significant investment in health and care services here in England, and the Barnett consequentials will create a rising tide that will lift all ships across England, Wales and Scotland. I might even say that all roads lead to Westminster. I say this to Scottish National party colleagues: down the road to Westminster lie the resources for the SNP Government, so they do not have an excuse not to act.