The government launched its 10-year plan for the NHS on Thursday, including moving care into the community, digitising the service and focusing on prevention rather than sickness.
Labour pledged in its manifesto to “build an NHS fit for the future”, including cutting waiting times and the “return of the family doctor”.
But since coming to power last July, 62 GP surgeries have closed, and 5.8 million people a month waited more than 14 days to see a GP compared with 5.4 million in the same period last year.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Sky News health correspondent Ashish Joshi: “I take your challenge on the chin about trying to stop practices from closing, trying to stop GPs leaving the profession and to make sure people have an improving experience in general practice.
“That’s why neighbourhood health is such a big part of the plan.
“When I’m reporting back on progress, whether on GPs recruited or the fact NHS waiting lists are the lowest levels in two years, it’s not because I think jobs done, I’m not trying to do victory laps or overclaim what we’ve managed to do.
“It’s more to report back to a sceptical public that actually, we are moving finally in the right direction.
“But I don’t doubt for a moment there is more to do and I take that challenge really seriously because we can’t succeed without GPs and the NHS will not survive and thrive without bringing back that family doctor relationship.”
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Earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said the 10-year plan’s aim is to shift care away from under-pressure medical facilities and closer to people’s homes, while taking measures to prevent people needing treatment in the first place.
Core elements of his plan include a hugely enhanced NHS app to give patients more control over their care and access to more data, new neighbourhood health centres open six days a week and at least 12 hours a day, and new laws on food and alcohol to prevent ill health.
He said the government had already done much to turn things around, with new staff in mental health and general practice, 170 new diagnostic services, new surgical hubs, mental health units, ambulance sites, and “record investment right across the system”.
But he added: “I’m not going to stand here and say everything is perfect now – we have a lot more work to do, and we will do it.
“Because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for the NHS.”
Former Conservative health secretary and chancellor Jeremy Hunt told Sky News’ Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge there is “much to welcome” in the plan because “it’s actually very similar to the plan that was launched in 2019 under the previous [Conservative] government by NHS England”.
However, he said he has an issue with its “execution and delivery” as he accused the plan of failing to answer “how you deliver this promised land” because “there’s no extra money going into the NHS”.
Mr Hunt added that it was “a little bit unfair” for Labour to claim the Tories were the reason the NHS is “facing the worst crisis in its history”, pointing out COVID was “the biggest crisis in the NHS’s history”.
