Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay is set to lay out his priorities in an address to the NHS workforce at the NHS Providers' annual conference.

It is expected he will include a focus on what matters most to patients.

Barclay will say he is to focus on measures which make it as easy as possible for frontline NHS and care workers to do their job.

This is Barclay's first speech since returning to the role of health secretary in Sunak's government.

His five key priorities include, supporting the workforce with more staff for NHS 111 and 999; focusing on recovery plans for elective, urgent and emergency care; tackling delayed hospital discharge; improving access to primary care and ensuring a stronger future for health, by investing in technology and maintaining momentum on the New Hospital Programme.

He is expected to say: "We face the twin threats of Covid and flu, external pressures around energy and cost of living, and we enter the colder months without the breathing space that we might have usually had due to covid pressures over the summer.

"So there is a huge amount to do to steer health and care through this storm and crucially, make the changes that will better prepare us for the storms to come."

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