Rishi Sunak has refused to say whether he uses private healthcare - insisting it is a 'distraction' while the NHS creaks under soaring pressure. Giving his first TV interview of 2023, the Prime Minister was asked whether he had a private GP four times by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.
Mr Sunak tried to initially deflect the question as he recalled growing up 'in an NHS family' and insisted he would not discuss his own or his family's healthcare 'as a general policy' and that 'it’s not really relevant, what’s relevant is the difference I can make to the country.”, but Ms Kuenssberg insisted the PM's decision-making was a matter of 'public interest'. She also reminded Mr Sunak that former Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher had been open about her use of private healthcare during her time in office.
The PM told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg : "It's just a personal choice. It's about healthcare, I think it's [something] that is private, but I think what people care about is am I going to make a difference on the things that they care about.
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"When it comes to the NHS, I literally grew up in an NHS family, my dad was a GP, my mum was a pharmacist and I think my track record matters more than these things. But what I would say is I want to make sure that we do have fantastic healthcare for everybody."
After being pressed on the issue for a fourth time, the PM added: "It's a distraction from what the real issue is, and the real issue is are we making sure that there is high quality healthcare available for the country? But when it comes to the private sector in general, we should be making use of the independent sector. I don't have any problem with that whatsoever.
"For example, with elective surgery, one of the things we do need to do is actually be much more open to using the independent sector capacity that is available and putting power in the hands of patients to choose where they want to have that treatment. That's something that we need to do more of."
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The role of the private sector in healthcare is currently being debated as the NHS grapples with a severe winter crisis - with hospitals, ambulance services and primary care all seeing huge demand. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the NHS is 'on its face'.
He told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “We’ve got to acknowledge that the health service is not just on its knees, it’s on its face… there are 7.2 million people on the waiting list. Speak to anyone who works in the NHS and they’ll tell you just how stressed it is. My wife works in the NHS so I know this first hand.”
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