Wes Streeting

The Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee is absolutely spot on. I am relieved to report that I was doing exactly what she mentions only last Friday; I was walking the corridors of Queen’s hospital in Romford. I was there in January as well, seeing the worst of the situation. I have been spending time on the frontline in the places that were under the most pressure, just as I did last winter. I went along, not to look down my nose at people, but to listen, and to see at first hand what was happening, why it was happening, and what we need to do differently. The team at Queen’s hospital can really take pride in what they have achieved, but we have to sustain that progress. Last week, there were no trollies on the corridor, and in February they saved 10,000 corridor hours. That is thanks to brilliant frontline staff and senior clinical leadership on the front door, and we will see that again during strikes. There is a certain irony about the fact that during resident doctors’ strikes, urgent and emergency care improves, because we have more experienced, senior clinical decision makers in urgent and emergency care. There is something to learn from that. I do not say that to denigrate resident doctors for a moment—they are learning and building their experience, and we do not want to lose that—but we are seeing that improvements can be made, and have to be made everywhere. We have to see this as a priority, because corridor care can never be the safest care, and it is never dignified care.