Can Rishi Sunak’s new health secretary Victoria Atkins save the NHS from a winter crisis?

How much strain is the NHS under? What can the health secretary do about it? Archie Mitchell looks at the pressures facing both

Victoria Atkins has inherited a broken sector facing a winter of discontent (PA)

Victoria Atkins has taken charge of the health service at a torrid time, with waiting lists at record highs and A&E departments under severe strain.

As the UK plunged into a cold snap, leaving parts of the country facing temperatures as low as -12C, the new health secretary promised that her “number one priority this winter” is averting a crisis in the NHS.

“We are going to do everything we can,” Atkins told the BBC.