Labour to reform and rebuild 999 services so they are fit for purpose
It is the thing we fear most – calling 999 but the ambulance just isn’t there, needing police help but no one comes. All of us want the security of knowing our emergency services will be there if the worst happens. But for too many people today that just doesn’t happen.
It can feel like nothing in our country is working. Britain is better than this. That is why Labour is so determined to reform and rebuild the public services our country needs. Our NHS is under phenomenal strain. 24 hours in A&E isn’t just a TV programme, it is the grim reality for patients waiting in pain.
Critically ill patients can wait an hour for an ambulance. The number of people who say they never see an officer on the beat has soared. Burglary and theft victims get no more than a crime number. Just 1 per cent of rapes are successfully prosecuted. And confidence in policing took another dive as the David Carrick case showed failings on vetting and standards.
We lost more strike days last year than any point since 1990, with nurses walking out for the first time in the history of the NHS. But our problems didn’t begin nor will they end with the current spate of industrial action.
Trains are cancelled daily – not just strike days. The number of crimes solved has plummeted while NHS wait times have been rising steadily. After 13 years of Tory mismanagement, Britain is broken. Ministers have run down public services or run away from the reforms and leadership needed to keep up with changing times.
Turning things round will be challenging. Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have made clear there won’t be a big Treasury chequebook to solve all problems, but Labour’s pledges will be costed and fully funded. Modern workforce planning and investment is vital. So our pledge to double medical training places and invest in thousands more nurses will be paid for by closing the non-dom tax loophole, while our plan to put 13,000 more police and PCSOs on our streets will be funded through major efficiency savings to merge procurement where too much is wasted in duplication across 43 forces.
Major public service reforms are long overdue. Labour will focus on prevention and early intervention that saves money elsewhere, catch up with changing technology, challenge outdated practices, improve efficiency and coordination and raise standards and put the people who use public services right at their very heart.
In the NHS, that means shifting the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community. Too many patients are walking through the front door of A&E because they couldn’t get a GP appointment, mental health support or even a dentist. Too many patients can’t get out the back door because social care just isn’t there. As a result A&E departments are overflowing and ambulances can’t reach emergency calls on time.
Patients are let down and it also costs the taxpayer more.
We have to reverse this backwards system where the health service diagnoses problems too late, and therefore provides less effective and more expensive treatment. Getting to patients earlier through better access to GPs, mental health support in every school, and care for people in their own home can all mean better outcomes and less taxpayer expense. As will cutting out the maddening inefficiency patients experience as they are passed from pillar to post.
It means rebuilding neighbourhood teams because policing has become too reactive, coping with crises, rather than working in communities to prevent crime or catch offenders. The police are left picking up the pieces when other services go wrong – dealing with mental health crises or searching for people missing because social care failed. Labour ministers will work together so our plans to improve mental health services and social care help lift the pressure on the police to better focus on fighting crime.
We will also change the law to raise police standards and reform culture.
Officers facing sexual or domestic abuse allegations must be immediately suspended, high standards in vetting, training and misconduct will be mandatory rather than left to police forces to decide.
At the heart of our reform agenda will be the needs of those who rely on public services. Putting patients first in our NHS, putting victims first in our criminal justice system, challenging outdated practices that let people down and never being afraid to stand up for those our services are really supposed to serve.
The choice at the next election is now clear; Labour renewal and reform versus Conservative status quo. That is the verdict of Conservative MPs like Sir Edward Leigh, who admitted last week that “Labour has a long-term plan but we don’t”. Only Labour understands what is needed to make sure all of us have the security of knowing public services will be there when we need them. Only Labour can provide Britain with the fresh start it needs.
24 hours in A&E isn’t just a TV programme, it is the grim reality for patients waiting in pain