Health Business

NEW RELEASE:
HEALTH BUSINESS 18.04

Jeremy Hunt’s mixed legacy

Not long before Jeremy Hunt helped secure much-needed funding for the NHS, he became the longest serving Health Secretary in British political history, having taken on the role in 2012.

While his move to the Foreign Office was rather hasty, making sense of his achievements and shortcomings as Health Secretary takes slightly longer to digest. The better-than-expected funding settlement is likely to positively taint some impressions, but it is hard to forget his unwavering commitment to creating a seven-day NHS and his much-criticised handling of the junior-doctor contract row.

Hunt set about changing the ‘Monday to Friday’ culture in hospitals, but under his time in office waiting times have lengthened, staff morale has dropped, and, with the health sector facing uncertainties over Brexit, recruitment and retention of staff has been inadequate at best. If funding over the next few years changes the winter crisis trend that has been established, history may see Hunt as having ended on a positive note. However, recent funding aside, his departure has not been mourned in many hospital corridors.

While many strongly believe that social care should be the top priority for the Department of Health and Social Care going forward, technology is likely to feature highly in new minister Matt Hancock’s in-tray. With a strong background in digital, Hancock is likely to appear regularly in our HiT Business columns, the background to which you can read on page 104.

Finally, a word of congratulations to the NHS and it’s 70 years of brilliant service. In a culture that is quick to criticise, the array of praise has been heart-warming.

Michael Lyons, editor