It’s hard to recall if any Tory ministers got the same kind of grilling Wes Streeting just endured on Sunday morning, at the hands of Laura Kuenssberg. The BBC host seemed perplexed as to why the Health Secretary had not yet fixed the problems facing NHS dentistry.
It has been a rather interesting morning for the flagship political show. Streeting at least turned up for his interrogation, which is more than can be said for Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch. The candidate has declined the opportunity to field questions from viewers
Taking a very firm line of questioning, Kuenssberg probed Streeting, and zeroed-in on the state of dental care within the UK. During the election campaign, Labour had promised to create 700,000 more dentist appointments, giving millions more access to the vital service.
The government took office just over 100 days ago. Within those three-and-a-half months, talks with representatives in the dental industry have taken place – but progress is dependent on ironing out contracts within the NHS first.
Streeting acknowledged that they are yet to clear the first hurdle – but made a rather salient point in the process. Kuenssberg repeatedly pressed him for specific dates and times for when the extra appointments would be made available, often talking over her guest.
The Health Secretary didn’t commit a timeframe, and defending his position, saying that things could not simply be sorted with one budget. He also reminded the veteran broadcaster that it would also take more than one spending review ‘to fix 14 years of NHS crisis’.
“We cannot fix dentistry until we fix the contract with the NHS first. We were speaking to them the Monday after the General Election. But I can’t promise to fix 14 years of NHS crisis within one budget, or one spending review.” | Wes Streeting
