Starmer unveils pledge on NHS
SIR KEIR STARMER has pledged Labour would make the NHS in England “fit for the future” with new targets for ambulance response times, cancer diagnosis and cutting deaths from cardiovascular disease.
Delivering a speech yesterday, he echoed Nye Bevan, the Labour minister who helped found the health service, in describing illness as “neither an indulgence” to be paid for, “nor an offence” to be penalised.
The Labour leader claimed the NHS in England will not survive another five years under the Tories, whom he accused of not believing in their “heart of hearts” in its core promise.
Giving the speech in Braintree in Essex, Sir Keir confirmed a number of key Labour commitments which include:
Reducing cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and stroke by 25% within a decade.
Ensuring 75% of all cancer is diagnosed at stages one and two, making it easier to treat.
Ambulances to respond to cardiac arrest callouts within seven minutes.
A return to the target of 95% of all A&E patients being seen within four hours.
The four-hour A&E target, which has not been achieved nationally since 2015, and an improvement in ambulance response times would be hit by 2030, he said.
He said “We will fix the NHS. We will reform the NHS. Old values, new opportunities. An NHS, not just off its knees, but running confidently towards the future.”
Sir Keir promised the audience a Labour government “will deliver an NHS that is there when you need it”, adding: “No backsliding, no excuses. We will meet these standards again. We will get the NHS back on its feet.”
He has proposed a shift towards more community-based mental healthcare to reduce the burden on hospitals, with a pledge to recruit 8,500 new staff and ensure treatment is available in less than a month.
Data released earlier this month showed that a raft of NHS targets in England are currently being missed, including a key 62-day cancer target.
The UK Government and NHS England set the ambition of returning the number of patients waiting more than 62 days to prepandemic levels by March 2023. However, the data showed that the number of patients waiting longer than 62 days since an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer stood at 19,248 in the week ending April 2.