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Labor has promised to clear England’s bulging NHS waiting list within five years, with Wes Streeting warning that health services risk becoming a “poor service” as the rich shift to private care.
In an interview with the Guardian, the shadow health secretary said that in another Conservative term the total waiting list in England could rise to 10 million cases, with healthcare becoming as degraded as NHS dental services.
“I am really afraid that if Rishi Sunak wins another term, what we have seen will happen NHS dentistry – which is a disservice to poor people and everyone else going private – that’s what we’re going to see for the whole of the NHS,” Streeting said.
In one of Labour’s most prominent and ambitious election promises, Streeting and Keir Starmerthe party leader, will use a campaign visit to the West Midlands to promise that the backlog of around 3.2 million people in England, who now wait more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment, will be cleared within five years.
The party previously set out plans to use more weekend and evening services to create 40,000 extra appointments a week, along with other measures such as expanding staffing and using capacity from the private health sector.
However, this is the first time Labor has made such a specific promise about waiting lists. Healthcare analysts said that was a welcome ambition but could prove difficult to achieve.
Streeting said he was aware of the weight of the responsibility to hit the target, but as someone who had been treated by the NHS for kidney cancer, it was his “driving goal” to achieve it.
“I feel like this huge responsibility is on our shoulders right now,” he said. “The challenge we face today is much greater than it was in 1997.
“As someone whose life was saved by the NHS when I had kidney cancer, as someone whose family has regularly relied on the NHS in good times and bad, if there’s only one thing I do with a life that’s been saved by the NHS , it’s about making sure I dedicate my life to saving the NHS that saved me. And that is my driving purpose. I really hope people give us a chance to do it.”
He added: “I am happy to be judged on every promise we have made in this election. As I was saying to people on the doorstep, especially with Labour’s six first steps, we have been so careful to make sure that the promises we make are promises we can keep and the country can afford. Because we know that if there’s anything that’s even less readily available than money right now, it’s trust.
While part of the faster patient turnaround is expected to come from a £1.3bn annual funding boost, paid for in part by scrapping the tax status of foreigners, much of the plan is based on modernization and efficiency.
Street he has faced before with professional bodies such as the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, but he said there was a desire for change in the NHS.
“I’m talking to you at a practice in Yorkshire where GP partners have led an approach that prioritizes the family doctor relationship and provides a whole range of value-added services, from singing lessons to help for people with respiratory problems to dementia clinics” , he said.
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“There are brilliant people on the front line. They are not resistant to change. They are crying out for it and they desperately need a government that will work with them instead of pulling the rug out from under them. So I don’t feel it’s going to be me against the NHS on NHS reform. It will be me with the NHS, reforming the National Health Service so that it is on its feet and fit for the future.’
NHS waiting lists in England are measured by different metrics depending on waiting times. The latest figures show that among the 3.2 million people waiting more than 18 weeks, just over 300,000 have been on the waiting list for a year or more.
The total waiting list includes about 6.3 million people, just over 7.5 million cases. Labor will argue that on the current trajectory this will reach 10 million cases in another Conservative term.
While health analysts welcomed Labour’s plan, some said the proposals would fail to deliver a “rapid or sudden improvement” to waiting times, while others said it could distract from other pressing health issues.
“Clearing the backlog within five years will take real effort and focus and could mean that other ambitions in health and care are slower to materialise,” said Sarah Ulnow, chief executive of the King’s Fund. “Achieving this ambition to eradicate the backlog within five years will almost certainly require a swift resolution of ongoing industrial action.”
Woolnough said offering evening and weekend appointments was a good idea, but it was “not a given” that NHS staff would be interested in extra shifts “when so many people are reporting high levels of stress and burnout”.
Thea Stein, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said Labor was right to focus on waiting lists. “We support the intention to spend more money on equipment that has historically been the victim of a short-term approach,” she said. “However, the amount they are offering will only cover a limited amount of extra care, not enough for a quick or sudden improvement.”
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