In January 2018, Hunt gained additional responsibility for social care in England and, in June, became the longest-serving Health Secretary in British political history.

Hunt pursued an ambitious agenda to address patient safety, regional variations in premature deaths, health tourism and A&E waiting times.

[8] In February 2018, Hunt attracted attention after defending the universal coverage provided by the NHS against US President Donald Trump, saying "I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover.

[11] It was reported in December 2013 that Hunt was personally telephoning the Chairs of NHS hospital trusts where targets in Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments had been missed, a course of action which was described as "crazy" by David Prior, chairman of the Care Quality Commission and a former Conservative MP.

[17] Following a pre-election report in April 2015 that hospital chiefs shared an average 6% pay rise totalling £35 million, Hunt promised to investigate if the Conservatives won the election.

[18] In 2015, an undercover Daily Telegraph investigation showed that in some cases locum agencies, Medicare and Team24 owned by Capita were charging some hospitals higher fees than others and giving false company details.

Hunt criticised those who sought "big profits" at the expense of the NHS and taxpayers and promised to "reduce the margins rip-off agencies are able to generate.

"[19] In July 2015, Hunt indicated that he would be prepared to impose a new consultant contract on doctors in England which would remove the opt out for non-emergency work at weekends.

He stated this was to prevent "about 6,000 avoidable deaths" resulting from a "Monday to Friday culture" in some areas of the NHS and to reintroduce "a sense of vocation" in consultants.

[21][22][23] It emerged in February 2016 that the "6,000 avoidable deaths" figure was based on Hunt's own understanding of an unpublished, unreviewed study by Freemantle et al. that he had access to before its publication in September 2015.

[24] In October 2015, Hunt was accused by the editor of The BMJ Fiona Godlee of repeatedly misrepresenting a study published in the journal in the same year by Freemantle et al. on the weekend effect to parliament and the public.

He had used the study as key evidence when stating in parliament and in interviews with the media that reduced staffing levels of doctors at weekends directly led to 11,000 excess deaths.

[28] Co-author NHS Medical Director Sir Bruce Keogh in response to Hunt's comments in October also stated "It is not possible to ascertain the extent to which these excess deaths may be preventable".

[30][31] Statisticians Professor David Spiegelhalter and David Craven, Dr Mark Porter, BMA council chair, Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary also denounced Hunt for making misleading statements about weekend hospital treatment after his assertion in parliament in the same month that "currently, across all key specialties, in only 10% of our hospitals are patients seen by a consultant within 14 hours of being admitted at the weekend."

It stated the department was unable to find evidence to prove a link between increased consultant presence, availability of diagnostic tests, and reducing weekend mortality and length of stay.

It also highlighted that the seven-day NHS could cost an additional £900 million each year, required the recruitment of 11,000 more staff including 4,000 doctors and 3,000 nurses, and that community and social services could struggle to handle more discharges at the weekend.

"[72] In February 2016, Hunt announced he would be unilaterally imposing the new junior doctors' contract without agreement or further negotiation, with NHS trusts instructed to introduce it in August.

[77][78][79] Hunt acknowledged this by saying that there would be "considerable dismay", and also announced an urgent inquiry led by the chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges Susan Bailey into junior doctors' morale and welfare.

After the results were announced, the BMA council chair Mark Porter appealed to the health secretary to resume negotiations facilitated by Acas.

[83][84] More than a week later, Hunt agreed to discussions overseen by Acas and withdrew his threat to impose a new contract without agreement, and the first day of strike action was called off hours before it was due to start, which was too late to avoid some disruption.

In order to successfully defend the case against him, lawyers acting on his behalf conceded that he did not actually have the power to impose the contract, and asserted that Hunt was not to be held accountable for things he had said in Parliament.

[111] Hunt drew condemnation from medical professionals when it was reported in January 2016 he had suggested that parents should go online to look at photos of rashes if worried that a child may have meningitis.

[113] In July 2016 a cross-party committee of MP's ascertained that Hunt had 'broken his pledges on NHS funding and is misleading the public about health service reforms'.

[115] During 2017, Stephen Hawking publicly criticised Hunt's management of the NHS and supported legal action against further reforms, including accountable care organisations (ACOs).

[119] Moreover, the think tank King's Fund has noted that contrary to campaigners' concerns "there is nothing to suggest that accountable care will lead to private providers playing a bigger role in delivering clinical services than they do now".

[125] In July, Boris Johnson resigned as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs over disagreements with Theresa May's negotiated Brexit withdrawal agreement.

[126] As Foreign Secretary, Hunt said in April 2019 he hoped to champion NHS reform upon his retirement from frontbench politics: "to do for patient safety what Al Gore has done for climate change".