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The health secretary gains sweeping new powers, with unclear consequences for patients

With Sajid Javid’s resignation from Boris Johnson’s cabinet, Ingrid Torjesen considers whether 12 months as England’s health secretary was long enough for him to effect change

Waiting lists are big news, but what’s really happening? John Appleby presents the most recent data in elective and emergency care—and the effect on patients

3 More recently the Mail ran a front page headline saying “Just a single GP for every 2000 patients,”4 which was based on a House of Commons Library report about a “postcode lottery” in GP access.5 The fall in GP numbers over the past decade, at the same time that more people have tried to access general medical services, is not news. Health policy think tanks, health services researchers, and doctors’ leaders have been saying this for some time.67 Mail writers have campaigned for the government to honour its 2019 Queen’s speech pledge to train 6000 more GPs. [...]on 13 October, the newspaper’s front page claimed “Victory for the Mail as GPs freed from covid rules,” when Javid was “set to tear up social distancing rules in surgeries” and enable more face-to-face consultations.11 Yet NHS Digital data show that monthly GP consultation numbers are already as high as at any point in history.12 The Mail claims it wants to help doctors.

Hancock had admitted breaking social distancing guidelines after the Sun newspaper published pictures of him kissing Gina Coladangelo, a long time friend of his and a non-executive director of the health department.1 But while the prime minister defended Hancock and said on Friday 25 June that he considered the matter “closed,” Hancock resigned the next day after a backlash from the public and some Conservative MPs. [...]the MP for Bromsgrove, who also served as home secretary from 2018 to 2019 under Theresa May’s government, said he was “honoured” to return to the cabinet as health secretary. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said, “Health leaders will be pleased the prime minister has wasted no time in appointing a new secretary of state as the NHS continues to fight the many challenges of a global pandemic.