Thérèse Coffey: who is the new health secretary and what’s her plan for fixing the NHS?

England’s fifth health and social care secretary in five years faces an unenviable task, with a record 6.84 million people on hospital waiting lists at the end of July1 and chronic staff shortages that stand at around 132 000 in NHS trusts and 165 000 in adult social care. On top of this, distressing stories of people waiting hours, or even days, for ambulances regularly hit the headlines. And it’s not even winter yet, with another covid wave, a bad flu season, and even doctors strikes all possible in the coming months.

“The context for the new health secretary is grim,” Hugh Alderwick, director of policy at the Health Foundation, told The BMJ. “Health and care services in England are under extraordinary strain, and more people are struggling to get the care they need. The cost-of-living crisis will put even more pressure on people and public services over winter.”