Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marsha De Cordova and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 23rd July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

The World Health Organisation is an intergovernmental arrangement. It is of vital importance that, first and foremost, we agree only to things that are in our national interest, but we should not lose sight of the fact that there are lots of things that we need to do together in pursuit of our national interest, from tackling antimicrobial resistance to preventing future pandemic threats. That is exactly what we will do.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

T10. I congratulate the Secretary of State and welcome him to his post. Eye healthcare services are in crisis due to the Tories breaking our NHS. Ophthalmology is the busiest out-patient service, making up nearly 10% of the entire waiting list. My national eye health strategy will seek to tackle some of these issues, so will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss how we can tackle the eye healthcare emergency?

[Wes Streeting]

I would be delighted to do that. As my hon. Friend knows, we visited Specsavers during the election campaign. There are lots of high street opticians, and they can make a real difference to cutting the backlog. The Conservatives should have gone to Specsavers, and this Government will.