The Rt Hon Thérèse Coffey, MP for Suffolk Coastal, has been named as the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, as well as Deputy Prime Minister in the first Cabinet for new Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
Thérèse had served as Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions since September 2019. Prior to that she was Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) from July 2019 and had been Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Defra since July 2016.
In a tweet, Thérèse said: “Patients are my top priority, as we focus on ABCD – ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists.” She has previously campaigned on improving the NHS experience for patients.
"Trust leaders will look to the new Health and Social Care Secretary to provide much-needed stability and leadership in the face of significant challenges, and to fight its corner as pressures mount on the service,” says Saffron Cordery, Interim Chief Executive of NHS Providers.
"They will hope that the link between the Deputy Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary roles is an indication of how seriously the new Prime Minister and her government are taking the multiple, pressing challenges facing mental health, community, acute and ambulance services.”
She adds: "The new Prime Minister stood on the steps of Downing Street today and pledged to put the NHS on a 'firm footing'. We hope that she, and the new Health and Social Care Secretary, will not duck these big issues and work with those on the frontline to deliver solutions.
"With an emergency budget expected to be just weeks away, the need for a fully funded workforce plan for health and care must be top of mind. With a staggering 132,000 NHS vacancies and many more across social care, these workforce gaps must be tackled as a matter of urgency.
"The government's failure to fully fund this year's below inflation pay awards, alongside ongoing concerns over punitive pension taxation for senior staff, is making it even harder to recruit and keep the staff we so desperately need. This, in turn, directly impacts on patient care.
"We need to see action on the government's much vaunted New Hospitals Programme, which has been beset by delay. The NHS needs long overdue capital investment to benefit patients and ensure the quality and safety of care.
"And more support must be provided for an underfunded and overstretched social care system to help to ease mounting pressure across the whole health and care system."
HEFMA will bring you more on this story as information becomes available.
