The Victoria Atkins One
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
BBC
4.6 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2024
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After a damning report into maternity services in England, the Health Secretary opens up about her own traumatic childbirth experience in the NHS.
Victoria Atkins also speaks to Nick Robinson about a change of tone in dealings with doctors' unions, growing up as child of an MP and what she thought when Natalie Elphicke defected to Labour.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.4 | Hello and welcome to political thinking. |
| 0:08.3 | Stop talking to the media. |
| 0:10.2 | Stop tweeting. |
| 0:11.6 | Meet in private. |
| 0:13.0 | Take the time you need to build trust. |
| 0:16.0 | That any peace negotiator will tell you is the way to find a solution. |
| 0:22.0 | This week on political thinking, my guess. find a solution. |
| 0:22.5 | This week on political thinking, my guest, the Health Secretary for England, Victoria |
| 0:26.8 | Atkins suggests it could be the way to find peace in the NHS, to end the strikes that have dogged the health service for more than a year. |
| 0:38.0 | It's been a big week for her when talks are starting once again with the junior doctors and after a new report |
| 0:45.7 | highlighted the horror for some mothers and soon-to-be mothers of NHS maternity services something she has, some rather powerful |
| 0:56.7 | experience of. Victoria Atkins, welcome to political thinking. |
| 1:00.9 | Thank you so much, Pleasure to be here. |
| 1:03.0 | You've said when talking about women's health, you've said when talking about this searing indictment |
| 1:09.1 | that we saw this week of maternity and childbirth services. This is personal for you. Why so? |
| 1:16.0 | Well, I'm a mum as well as the Secretary of State for Health and I had my baby on the NHS and I have a long history with the NHS and I've been very open about it. |
| 1:28.0 | I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 3 and I have seen some brilliant parts of the NHS but I've also seen |
| 1:35.7 | some of its darker corners and and so the NHS is genuinely one of the reasons I came |
| 1:40.7 | into politics because I want to help the brightest lights to flourish |
| 1:45.8 | but also to help those people who are not getting the services that they should do and this is |
| 1:50.3 | particularly the case in women's health and indeed in maternity services as we've seen this week. |
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