Health Secretary Wes Streeting and NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard visit the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service. Mr Streeting insists the government has “hit the ground running” since taking office and “prepared the best we can for this winter” while acknowledging the challenges with flu, Covid and norovirus. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00We've hit the ground running. We've prepared as best we can for this winter. There are
00:07big challenges, particularly with flu, with COVID, with norovirus. And that's why, in
00:14terms of the operational leadership, ministers are taking a close interest, not just in terms
00:19of how the system is performing overall, but getting right down into local areas and sometimes
00:25individual cases, to understand why it is some people are waiting so long, and what
00:31we can learn, not just for this winter, but already starting to prepare for next winter
00:35too. I think the standard of and timely access to care that we see in the NHS today is far
00:42from acceptable. As I said when we came into government, the NHS is broken, but it's not
00:46beaten. And actually, what I heard today from frontline leaders from across the NHS are
00:52outstanding examples of best practice, where people are innovating, trying new things and
00:57making a real difference, but also honesty about the challenges. That we're a team. We've
01:02come into government to turn the NHS around. We can only do that by mobilising the team
01:07across the country. It's not the fault of NHS staff the NHS is broken, it's the fault
01:11of our Conservative predecessors. And as with so many other things in our country, we are
01:15putting our shoulders to the wheel with frontline staff to turn the situation around, so that
01:20this Labour government will take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, get it back
01:24on its feet and make sure it's fit for the future.