Wes Streeting: I don’t want anyone thinking I’m cocky and complacent with NHS

Wes Streeting was in a sober, reflective mood – and it wasn’t because he had just finished a tour of a hospice.

If anything, that aspect of his day had really cheered him up. The health secretary was at St Christopher’s in Sydenham, south London, to open a new wing funded with part of a £100 million government grant.

Speaking to Metro in one of the building’s meeting rooms, Streeting said this was an example of ‘seeing the consequences of a decision that I have taken in my office’, the kind of thing that gets him out of bed every day.

Outside the hospice doors, things were less rosy.

Resident doctors were in the middle of a five-day strike that Streeting and Prime Minister Keir Starmer had condemned in forceful terms. Meanwhile, hospitals in England were handling record numbers of flu cases for the time of year.

‘The last few weeks have had some of my hardest days in this job so far,’ Streeting said bluntly.

And while he believes there were some ‘green shoots of recovery’ visible in the NHS in 2025 – with waiting lists down and satisfaction with GP access up – he admitted the picture was far from all positive.

‘We’ve also seen, in recent days and weeks, trolleys on corridors in hospitals, which I do not believe is an acceptable standard of care,’ the health secretary said.

‘There will still be one in four patients who are struggling to get access to a GP and aren’t satisfied with their experience.

‘Ambulances are not arriving as fast as I want them to.

‘So, for all the progress we’re making, I don’t want anyone for a moment to think that we’re patting ourselves on the back, resting on our laurels or are getting cocky and complacent. Quite the opposite.’

Over the course of 2025, polls show health has slipped down voters’ lists of most pressing issues, largely replaced with concerns over the economy and immigration.

While that might imply they are less worried about the state of the NHS, the same YouGov poll suggests more voters think the government is handling the health service badly compared to the start of the year – a view that’s even more pronounced among 2024 Labour voters.

But that shift took place among almost every policy area that the pollsters asked about: housing, taxation, welfare, crime, Brexit. It all points to a government sinking deeper and deeper into a morass of unpopularity.

On this, Streeting was equally blunt. ‘We know at the moment politicians in this country are less popular than traffic wardens and estate agents.

‘I think there’s a lot of cynicism out there, and I know when it comes to the NHS and its recovery, seeing is believing.

‘So, I know that some people are experiencing an improving NHS and for other people the care isn’t good enough. Let me tell you, it’s the latter group that I am most focused on.’

After all, we’re only around six months into the 10 Year Health Plan for England which was launched in July this year.

Nobody doubts change in such a large and troubled organisation will take time, but Streeting seems equally sure that once it happens, the minds of the public will change along with it.

There’s no shortage of potential pitfalls to stymie any progress, though.

In the surroundings of the hospice, it was hard to avoid the subject of the Assisted Dying Bill currently being scrutinised in the House of Lords. Before MPs voted in favour of the bill, the health secretary had warned end-of-life care in the UK was not in a state to provide an alternative.

Does the government’s tens of millions in support for the hospice sector go any way to alleviating that concern?

Streeting paused. ‘My view has always been that firstly, regardless of my views on the issue of assisted dying, it’s our responsibility both as a Parliament and a government to make the bill as good as possible. So we’re working constructively to achieve that goal.

‘And secondly, if Parliament decides that people should be given the choice of an assisted death, then we have to have real choice by making sure there is high quality palliative end-of-life care available.

‘And that has to be available for everyone everywhere. We’re some way short of that right now.’

But the future of that bill will be just one of the major issues in Streeting’s brief that are set to define the coming year.

Among the big moments on the way in 2026 are the NHS Workforce Plan (which was promised in the 10 Year Plan); the results of a investigation into maternity services; and Baroness Casey’s much-anticipated report on the crisis in social care.

Again, these are all initial steps – moves that are intended to show the right direction of travel, at a time when the public is getting impatient for demonstrable results.

Streeting insists he feels the same. ‘As much as for the public seeing is believing, I feel like that as the Health and Social Care Secretary as well.

‘I make these decisions, I want to make sure that they’re implemented.’

Starmer – the man some believe Streeting hopes to replace as Prime Minister one day – has said 2026 will prove to be the year that ‘Britain turned renewal into reality’.

It will take more than a few new hospice wings and policy frameworks to convince the country that’s the case.

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