A furious NHS worker has blasted a bewildered Labour minister demanding that they “start doing something now” to fix the treasured health service.
The Question Time audience member was fuming that Labour is set to launch yet another consultation – that Labour’s dubbed a “big national conversation” – to help improve the health service.
She let her feelings known by taking aim at Labour MP for Streatham and Croydon North and Secretary of State for the Environment, Steve Reed.
The audience member said: “I actually work in the NHS – I actually work in the emergency department and we have given you…this ten year plan we had going on, right? You’ve not even reached any of that for those 10 years.
“We shouldn’t be telling you as people in the NHS or members of the public what you should be doing. It’s obvious what needs to happen.”
She then said that talking more was useless and that action was needed quickly to stop haemorrhaging staff.
She said: “I love my job and I love helping people – you can’t attract people into the NHS the way it is. You have to start doing something now and acting on things now and not have another ten year plan! Come on guys!”
The audience erupted in applause for the woman. Fiona Bruce chimed in saying “very powerfully put, I have to say” before adding “and clearly from the heart”.
Ms Bruce then made the point that Wes Streeting had been shadow health secretary before becoming the current health minister – and therefore had had a lot of time thinking about what kind of action he wanted to take.
Mr Reed, said that he understood the lady’s concerns but that they were cracking on with the task at hand.
He said: “They are getting on with it. We’re looking at how we can get 40,000 more appointments every week because we’ve got waiting lists that are extending for years for some people.”
The audience member then interrupted the minister saying the NHS was “losing staff hand over fist” saying that it was because they are “tired and burned out” – which gained yet more rapturous applause. She added that “enough is enough.” Mr Reed said that he “completely understood” her concerns adding that they “felt the same” because the NHS “is broken.”
Also on the show a heated debate over reparations for slavery erupted durng BBC’s Question Time, as an audience member dismissed demands for compensation as “ridiculous.”
The debate aired live from Plymouth this week and part of it focused on whether the UK should allocate funds to atone for its colonial past.
Emily Sheffield, a journalist on the panel, said: “I think it’s an incredibly complex question.”
She added:“King Charles has said that we must understand the path of history. I do think there is further acknowledgement to be made of the pain, the stain of that terrible period of history that caused so much damage to so many communities.”
An audience member was then asked to speak and he wasn’t happy with what he heard from the panel.
He said: “You’re opening a can of worms. You’re asking the country to be responsible for something that happened 200 years ago, and for me to pay that to someone who wasn’t even there. I find it all ridiculous.”