Labour will announce today that the parts of the country with the highest number of people out of work due to ill health will receive priority support to cut NHS waiting lists, as part of the Labour government’s efforts to get people back to work.
Under the plans, teams of leading clinicians are being sent to hospitals to roll out their reforms and get patients treated faster.
Top doctors who have developed new ways of working are delivering up to 4 times more operations than normal. Operating theatres at Guys and St Thomas’s in London run like a formula one pit stop to cut time between procedures.
The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting will make the announcement in his speech to Labour party conference later today that the teams are starting with twenty hospital Trusts in the parts of the country with the biggest rates of economic inactivity.
2.8 million people are out of work due to ill-health, 500,000 more than in 2019. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the bill for sickness and disability benefits will soar by £30 billion in the next five years, on current trajectories.
NHS waiting lists currently stand at 7.6 million, and were rising before the general election. 3.1 million have been waiting longer than 18 weeks for treatment, the maximum amount of time patients are supposed to wait.
Wes Streeting, Health and Social Care Secretary, will say: “Ending the junior doctor strikes was central to our commitment to deliver 40,000 more appointments a week to cut waiting lists.
“But as well as getting staff back to work, we need to get them working at the top of their game.
“We’re sending crack teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to roll out reforms – developed by surgeons – to treat more patients, and cut waiting lists.
“The first hospitals targeted by these teams will be in areas with the highest numbers of people off work sick.
“Because our reforms are focused not only on delivering our health mission but also moving the dial on our growth mission.
“We will take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, get sick Brits back to health and back to work.
“That’s the difference a Labour government makes.”
Labour to announce plan to get sick Brits off waiting lists and back to work
