Helen Salisbury: Goodbye, Mr Streeting

After what feels like a long time (but is actually less than two years), Wes Streeting has left his role as health secretary.Not surprisingly, his effect on the NHS and the country's health is now being discussed.1 -3 When the Labour government came to power in July 2024, there was genuine hope that the problems caused by so many years of underinvestment might finally be remedied: unmet patient need, understaffing, and crumbling estates.The first action of the new health secretary was to declare that the NHS was broken, and although this was welcomed in some quarters as a healthy dose of realism about the state we were in, it did nothing to raise morale.His assertion that what was needed was reform, rather than investment, was rather less warmly received.