He was a junior health minister for most of 2018 and was then promoted to chief secretary to the Treasury from February 2020 to November 2021—the main period of the pandemic. As Treasury secretary, Barclay seemed to delight in behaving abrasively towards NHS leaders. Victoria Atkins, the chief secretary to the Treasury with whom he failed to achieve this, is Barclay's successor at the DHSC. NHS England’s referral to treatment (RTT) backlog was 6.5 million when Barclay first became health secretary: the latest data show it has risen to 7.8 million. Nor does the government look on course to eliminate waits of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025.

Source: The Times November 17, 2023 17:25 UTC