Following the appointment of Wes Streeting as new health secretary, and ministerial roles being given to Stephen Kinnock and Karin Smyth, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that Andrew Gwynne and Baroness Merron have also been handed junior roles.
Gwynne, who helped Labour hold the Greater Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton with a 13,000 majority, has been appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention.
Baroness Merron has also been appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.
The news comes after Streeting met with the co-chairs of the British Medical Association’s junior doctor committee, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, yesterday.
“This dispute has lasted far too long and has cost the NHS far more than it would have taken to solve from the beginning,” the two chairs said in a joint statement.
“Mr Streeting has been following this dispute closely and can be under no illusions: not about the consequences of government delay, nor about the determination of our membership to achieve pay restoration, nor about the hopes of millions of patients for an end to this avoidable dispute.”
It is estimated that the strikes in England have led to almost 1.5 million cancelled operations and appointments and a cost of approximately £3bn to the NHS. The parties are set for another meeting next week.
Streeting has also asked the DHSC to expand its focus on boosting the economy. Speaking at an event for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the health secretary said: “I want to end the begging bowl culture, where the Health Secretary only ever goes to the Treasury to ask for more money. I want to deliver the Treasury billions of pounds of economic growth.”
He intends to do this via three main routes, including getting people back into the labour market through waiting list cuts and public health improvements; making the UK a life sciences and medical technology powerhouse; and by using the health and care sector to provide training and job opportunities to local people across the country.
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