Hosting a meeting of health leaders at 10 Downing Street, Rishi Sunak says the government are "making good progress" on recovery plans for the NHS but insists it "cannot be complacent" ahead of the winter months. 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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00:00 I also wanted to just say thank you for the improvement that we've seen, particularly
00:04 in A&E and ambulance performance, certainly since last winter, but also since last year.
00:10 I think we've made great strides there, and that gives us a very good foundation going
00:14 into winter.
00:15 I think the other thing to stress is we are making good progress on the recovery plans
00:20 for the NHS that we put together collectively earlier this year.
00:24 When I look at primary care, we've got a record number of primary care appointments now.
00:28 We're investing in GP practices to help end the 8am scramble, and this autumn we'll be
00:34 rolling out a pharmacy first initiative so people can go to their pharmacies instead
00:38 of their GPs.
00:39 And when it comes to hospitals, we're on track to deliver 5,000 extra beds to create that
00:44 extra capacity.
00:45 We're on track to deliver our 800 ambulances to help with flow there.
00:49 In social care, the investments that we've put in mean that we are discharging people
00:53 faster out of hospitals, freeing up beds which will be helpful for winter flow, and we are
00:59 protecting planned elective care as well.
01:02 So look, good progress, but we can't be complacent.
01:06 We've put record funding into the NHS.
01:08 I think you can see that the government is four square behind the NHS and social care.
01:12 Also with the long-term workforce plan, we're doing the right things for the future, but
01:16 we need to make sure that that record investment is going to make a difference to the patients,
01:21 particularly this winter.