I have lots of favourite things about this time of year - from spending time with my family, to seeing our local area all dressed up in lights and Christmas decorations.
But one of my real pleasures is finally getting the chance to stop and think about the year that's just been.
I remember sitting down to write my Christmas newsletter last year, with snow on the ground and a turbulent twelve months behind us, wondering what 2023 had in store.
Thankfully, it’s been different.
We’ve been able to knuckle down and get on with delivering our promises. We’ve halved inflation, we’ve hit our target to get 20,000 more police officers on our streets, and we’ve met our pledge to hire 50,000 more nurses in the NHS, as well as so much else.
But there’s still lots more to do, including in our health system which I have been tackling over the last year as a Health Minister – in fact, I spent even more time testing it than I bargained for getting treatment for my broken ankle!
We started preparing for winter earlier than ever before, and in recent weeks we’ve had some really positive updates - with waiting lists starting to fall and ambulance response times down from last year.
At the same time, we’re changing the way our health system works to make it faster, fairer, and simpler. That means shifting the focus away from hospital and emergency care and into the community, where we can help people live healthy and independent lives for longer.
One of the things we know makes life so much better for patients and care home residents is having loved ones come to visit.
Especially at Christmas, love can be as powerful as any drug we can administer –– and that’s why we’re changing the law to make visiting a fundamental standard of care in care homes, hospitals and hospices.
