 a Llywodraeth Llywodraeth a Llywodraeth Llywodraeth a Llywodraeth Llywodraeth a Llywodraeth Llywodraeth. Thank you, conference. I'm delighted to be here in Birmingham for my first speech as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and as Deputy Prime Minister. I was here just a couple of months ago for the Commonwealth Games and I was absolutely blown away by the games themselves and also by how this city has been transformed since we were last here. And that is thanks to Conservative Mayor Andy Street. Andy has shown that being ambitious for the people and communities he represents, getting on with the job at hand and focusing on delivery is exactly what our voters want and why he was re-elected resoundingly. Conference, as a Conservative Government, we believe in the great British people and we are ambitious for our country. Despite severe challenges facing the global economy in the wake of Putin's illegal evasion of Ukraine and the aftershock of Covid, now is the time we must come together to tackle the issues that we have long faced and we will take decisive action to get Britain moving again. For getting Britain building, to channeling investment into local areas, to helping families get on in life, we will deliver, deliver, deliver. Conference, our National Health Service has the admiration and gratitude of the British people, particularly for getting us through Covid. The doctors, the nurses, the midwives, the paramedics, the chemists, the cleaners and all the clinical and support staff, as well as the carers working in care homes or in our communities, they regularly go the extra mile. They are the pride of Britain. The NHS is and always has been a national endeavour that was set out in 1944 when it was a Conservative politician, Sir Henry Willink, who put forward the proposals for a national health service. That's right, a Conservative MP from my home city of Liverpool who conceived the NHS, a good omen I think. I continue to be proud of the many doctors, nurses and dentists serving as Conservatives in Parliament far more than we see in the Labour Party. It is because of our Conservative Party's commitment to the NHS that we will be spending £173 billion this year on health and social care in England alone, up from £124 billion when we entered office in 2010. This has resulted in more doctors and nurses than ever before. But as health secretary, it's my job to be honest and to level with you about the scale of challenge ahead of us. And frankly, I won't be turning to Labour for Solutions. Do you want to see the Labour Party running the NHS? Just look across the border into Wales where around 60,000 patients are still waiting for more than two years for treatment, higher than last year. This isn't the time for brickbats though. It is precisely because health care matters so much that we need to have an honest discussion and be prepared to hold the NHS to account, forging a partnership with them, focused on delivery, not dogma. So let's be honest. While most patients receiving care in our NHS have a good experience, too many do not. Whether it's the 8am scramble to see a GP, or the long waits to get tests or treatment, or the struggle to see an NHS dentist at all. Much of this has been made worse by the pandemic, and I must level with you, backlogs are expected to rise before they fall, as more patients come forward for diagnosis and treatment. But this isn't just about Covid. There is still too much variation in patient experience. I saw that for myself this July when I went to A&E. I waited nearly nine hours to see a doctor, before being asked to return the next day for treatment. Now I knew from previous experience that would be too late. So I took myself to a different hospital and was treated that same day. But as a sort of variation we see across the NHS, from two hospitals just a couple of miles apart, and it must change. That is why my first job in the department was creating our plan for patients, which puts the needs of patients front and centre. Our new plan for patients deliberately places an ethicist on primary care, the gateway to the NHS for most people. It empowers doctors and nurses by reducing bureaucracy, which gets in the way of them doing their jobs. And it seeks to improve performance across the country by unlocking data. Now, you may have heard ABCD are my immediate priorities. And no confidence I wasn't broadcasting my A-level results to the nation. Nor was I reciting a new hip-hop beat by Dr Dre. Those four letters represent my commitment to focus, resolutely, on the issues that affect patients most. Ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists. And with my excellent ministerial team, Robert Gennrich, Will Quince, Neil O'Brien, Nick Markham, and our very own in-house ministerial medic, Dr Caroline Johnson, together we will focus on the issues that affect patients most to deliver their priorities and be their champion. Starting with A for ambulances, access to urgent treatment can be life-saving. When people phone 9-9 because they think they or their loved one is having a heart attack or stroke, they want to know help will come and will come soon. Let's be clear, average waiting times are too long. So, we are increasing the number of 9-9-9 call handlers and we must also get ambulances back on the road from handovers at hospitals. So we are placing a laser-like focus on our most challenged trusts because as we saw last winter, nearly half of all handover delays were in just 15 trusts. We also know to be able to admit more patients, we need to open up more space in hospitals. So we are acting immediately to create more capacity, the equivalent of 7,000 more beds this winter. But it's not just capacity in our hospitals we need, it's also in our communities to help support people who could be cared for more appropriately at home or in a care home, rather than being kept in hospital unnecessarily. That is why the sea for care is such an integral part of our plan and why we have invested a further £500 million this winter so local councils and the local NHS can work together to tackle delayed discharges. It isn't all about emergency care though, it is also about diagnosis and treatment and that is where we go back to be for backlogs. The waiting list for planned care made worse by the pandemic currently stands at about £7 million. This includes people waiting for diagnosis to know if they need any treatment at all. While in England we have now virtually eliminated waits of over two years we are speeding up our plans to roll out community diagnostic centres as well as new hospitals and we will maximise the use of the independent sector too when patients are waiting too long for treatment. Lastly but key is D for doctors and for dentists. Now I think it is perfectly reasonable when people need to see a GP they should expect to do so within a fortnight. Of course I would like to be more ambitious and while I will not be prescriptive on how GPs interact with their patients I am clear patients must be able to see their doctors promptly. Now to help achieve these priorities I will publish a lot more information for patients so they can see how their local NHS is performing including their GP practice and on access to NHS care and treatment. Another key element is personnel. I have listened to why people say they are leaving the NHS or what is holding them back from offering more services and I am responding. I am empowering GPs to use their funding more flexibly for the recruitment of more support staff and making significant changes to pension arrangements. I am extending the emergency clinical register so that health professionals who have come out of retirement can continue to practice for a further two years. I am opening up more prescription capability and services to pharmacists. I am investing in IT for telephony and digital appointments and I am making it easier for clinicians registered outside England to be accredited to get to work more quickly treating patients. It is frankly bonkers that we have restrictions on the recognition of doctors, dentists and nurses within the UK itself. That is why I am laying regulations next week which will allow the General Dental Council to get on with accrediting dentists to work right across our United Kingdom so we can have oasis of oral care rather than dental deserts. This is all on top of our existing commitments to boost the health and care workforce including our manifesto pledge to recruit 50,000 more nurses by 2024. Conference, whether you live in a city or a town in the countryside or on the coast, this Conservative government will always be on your side when you need care the most. Conference, this is just the start around ambitions for health and care. Our plan informs patients and empowers them to live healthier lives because we know prevention is better than cure. As we continue our longer-term health approach, strengthening mental well-being and resilience as well as the physical health of our nation because that is also good for the economic health of the nation. We have a record number of people in work on the payroll but there are many vacancies still to be filled. We know work is good for you both physically and for mental well-being as well as putting more pounds in your pocket. That is why I will strive to support those who are not working now due to ill health to help them to start, stay and succeed in work building on the Prime Minister's pledge to have more mental health support in communities because together we can deliver a healthier, more productive society all the stronger to help grow our economy. As the Prime Minister said on the steps of Downing Street, she has three clear priorities. Growing the economy, building energy security and costs for households and businesses and the NHS. When I first went into the department I asked what was the biggest risk, what biggest risk was this winter and what we could do to help. I was told help with energy bills so older people would not worry about the cost of turning on the heating and for health and care providers too. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor listened. They acted, they have delivered and we need to act on growing the economy too. We need a strong economy to have a strong NHS. We need a resilient, sustainable economy to have a resilient, sustainable NHS and we need a compassionate and considered Conservative government to deliver, deliver, deliver. Together conference, that is exactly what we will do. Thank you very much.