Worksop Guardian 05.07.2023
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the NHS, our most treasured national institution, as we deliver a better NHS for staff and patients now and in the future.
We know there are pressures on services, particularly following the pandemic, and it is important the NHS changes and adapts in response to this by improving technology and medical advancements.
That is why we are supporting our NHS with record levels of investment and record numbers of doctors and nurses. Investment must be supported by reform, which is why last week we set out our 15-year NHS workforce plan, backed by £2.4 billion, modernising the workforce and setting out the largest expansion in training and recruitment in the NHS’ history.
We are confident that with our plans for recovery and reform and an embrace of technology and innovation, it will be fit to deliver the best care to patients for another 75 years, as we deliver on the Prime Minister’s pledge to cut waiting lists.
This week I also had the pleasure of attending a reception at Number 10 to thank our local NHS champions and hear from Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. It was also a great chance for my to thank my own NHS champion – my wife. We first met when I was teaching in Romania and we moved back to the UK when she came here to take up a job as a doctor with the NHS at Bassetlaw Hospital.
I know myself the challenges of moving to a new country and I am very proud of the fact that she has worked so hard, as all our NHS staff have, both throughout the pandemic and beyond to help provide the healthcare we all rely on. Indeed, our local NHS is incredibly important to our family, as our second son Alexander was born in Worksop at Bassetlaw Hospital too. The care received there was absolutely first class, including when he was ill and had to return at a later date.
This is another reason why I will fight to make sure we have the local healthcare resources that people in Bassetlaw deserve and why I am so delighted that work has now started on the £17.6million upgrade of our accident and emergency department, which will also see the return of weekend and evening care for our children, without the need to make a long trip to Doncaster.
So thank you once again to all of our NHS heroes and I look forward to the NHS going from strength to strength.#
