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Rishi Sunak has said he is now registered with an NHS GP, having previously used private healthcare, during a prime minister’s questions dominated by the state of the NHS and the strikes by health and ambulance staff.
“I am registered with an NHS GP. I have used independent healthcare in the past,” Sunak told the Commons in response to a question from the Labour MP Cat Smith about NHS dentistry. He also praised a hospital in his Yorkshire constituency “for the fantastic care they’ve given my family over the years”.
The prime minister and his officials had previously refused to say whether Sunak or his family used the NHS after the Guardian revealed he was registered with a private clinic in west London clinic that charges £250 for a consultation.
Answering Smith’s question, Sunak did not say when he registered with the NHS GP, or whether his family used private healthcare.
But speaking after PMQs Sunak’s press secretary said he had always been registered with an NHS GP, even while he used private care.
“The PM has set out his details in the house. In principle, he believes that the personal health details of individuals should remain private,” she said.
“But given the level of interest, and in the interests of transparency, he has set out that he is registered with an NHS GP, and has always been. He has used private healthcare in the past.”
She confirmed that Sunak was no longer registered with a private GP, but refused to say when this had happened, or whether it had been since he became prime minister in October, adding: “As far as I’m aware, he is only registered with an NHS GP.”
His exchanges with Keir Starmer focused entirely on health issues, with the Labour leader castigating Sunak over the scale of waiting lists, while the PM largely responded by talking about the government’s bill to limit public sector strikes, announced on Tuesday.
“The prime minister is saying he’s now registered with an NHS doctor, so he’ll soon enjoy the experience of waiting on hold every morning at 8am to get a GP appointment,” Starmer said, also criticising Sunak over the strikes.
“In the 13 years of the last Labour government, there were no national NHS strikes,” Starmer said.
“If the prime minister had negotiated with the nurses before Christmas, they wouldn’t be on strike. If it negotiated with the ambulance workers, they wouldn’t be on strike either. So why is he choosing to prolong the misery rather than end the strike?”
Sunak replied that he was seeking “constructive dialogue with the unions”, and accused Starmer of being “on the side of his union paymasters, not patients” for opposing the bill to impose minimum strike service levels on the NHS and other public services.
The government was trying to “legislate your way out of 13 years of failure”, Starmer replied, telling Sunak: “They’ve gone from clapping the nurses to sacking the nurses. It’s that simple.”
During a series of questions from Starmer on waiting lists, Sunak tried to change the subject or say this was because of Covid. The eventual aim, the PM said, was to stop anyone waiting more than a year for an NHS procedure.
Starmer replied: “So he can’t tell us how much he will reduce waiting lists by, or when. So much for the accountability he wants. As ever with this prime minister, you scratch the surface and you find there is nothing there.
“He’s promising that one day, although he can’t say when, their record-high waiting lists will stop going up. After 13 years in government, what does it say that the best they can offer is that, at some point, they might stop making things worse?”
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