Jeremy Hunt thanks NHS after breaking arm on morning run

Former health secretary tells parliament he has 'just come back' from hospital

Jeremy Hunt has thanked the NHS for its "wonderful care" after he broke his arm on a run in the morning.

The former health secretary told parliament about the incident while speaking virtually later that day with his arm in a sling.

"Can I start my comments by thanking the brilliant staff at the Royal Surrey County Hospital for the wonderful care this morning, as it happens," he said on Thursday.

"I unfortunately slipped over and broke my arm on a morning run, and I have just come back from there," he told parliament just hours after the accident.

Mr Hunt, the Conservative chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, went on to discuss plans to reform health and social care, saying he it was a "very big deal to do a structural reorganisation of the NHS".

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"It is nonetheless the right thing to do and a brave thing to do," he said, "because NHS staff want nothing more than to be able to give joined up care - joined up between hospitals, GP surgeries, the social care system, community care - and the current structures make that more difficult than it should be."

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has said reforms to the NHS which sweep away much of the framework set in place under an earlier Conservative government will see the health service and partners work more closely.

The proposals bring together the NHS, social care and local government to make decisions with the aim of providing integrated care and aims to strip away the bureaucracy of the internal market system created under David Cameron in 2012.

But health experts have warned another massive restructure could distract from the challenges arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

Additional reporting by Press Association