Health leaders dismiss Keir’s claim he’ll get 7.7m off waiting lists in 5 years
HEALTH leaders have rubbished Keir Starmer’s claim Labour could clear NHS waiting lists in one term without a substantial rise in funding.
The Labour leader said it is his ‘ambition’ to eradicate record waits, which currently stand at 7.7million after soaring during the pandemic.
But union chiefs and NHS bosses have suggested the claims are implausible, given the Shadow Health Secretary’s pledge to focus on reform rather than investment.
Speaking at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool yesterday, Wes Streeting said a Labour government would ‘turn the NHS on its head’.
He told conference: ‘Reform is even more important than investment. Because pouring ever-increasing amounts of money into a system that isn’t working is wasteful.
‘ I argue that our NHS must modernise or die, not as a threat but a choice. The crisis is that existential.’
‘The NHS must modernise or die’
Setting out his stall for the next general election, he promised to shift more care from hospitals to the community, a renewed focus on preventing ill health, and speedier uptake of new technology.
He reiterated his pledge of £1.1billion to help reduce the NHS backlog by asking doctors and nurses to work overtime in the evenings and at weekends, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status.
Labour said this would allow the health service to deliver 2million extra appointments a year.
But think-tanks and unions have warned staff are already overworked and could earn more by taking shifts in the private sector.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said Mr Streeting’s speech contained ‘admirable aspirations’, but added: ‘Where health leaders may differ in opinion from the Labour Party is reform being more important than investment, as both are needed.’
Professor Nicola Ranger, director of nursing at the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘ Any future government will not get record patient waiting lists down while the NHS is short of tens of thousands of nursing staff.’
Conservative health minister Maria Caulfield said: ‘This is just more of the same from Labour, who always take the easy way out and say what they think people want to hear.
‘Wes Streeting can’t escape his party’s record in Wales, which is one of letting people down and not giving patients choice.’