The government will target areas with the ‘highest numbers of people off work sick’ for a new initiative to get hospitals running like a ‘Formula 1 pit stop’.
Speaking today at the Labour Party conference, health secretary Wes Streeting announced plans for ‘crack teams of top clinicians’ to go into hospitals and roll our reforms in operating theatres.
The new ways of working have been developed by surgeons and can deliver ‘up to four times more operations than normal’, according to Labour.
This model is based on operating theatres at Guys and St Thomas’ in London which Labour said ‘run like a Formula 1 pit stop to cut time between procedures’, which he referenced at a fringe conference event on Monday.
Mr Streeting said the initial focus on 20 hospital trusts in areas with the ‘biggest rates of economic inactivity’ is based on the government’s commitment to ‘moving the dial’ on its ‘growth mission’.
During his speech today, the health secretary also promised to maintain the NHS as a service which is free at the point of use, claiming that the ‘crisis’ left by the Conservatives means that ‘seven in 10 people now expect charges for NHS care to be introduced’.
‘I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: over my dead body. We will always defend our NHS as a public service free at the point of use, so that whenever you fall ill, you never have to worry about the bill,’ he told the conference.
Mr Streeting also said the government has ‘hit the ground running’ since the election, pointing to his decision to expand the ARRS to include GPs with £82m of extra funding.
He said: ‘We inherited the farce of newly qualified GPs facing unemployment. Patients can’t get a GP appointment while GPs couldn’t get a job. We cut red tape, found the funding, and we’ll have 1,000 more GPs treating patients.’
As well as the focus on areas of high ‘economic activity’, the health secretary also indicated today that government initiatives will be targeted at ‘disadvantaged areas’.
He argued that patient ‘choice’ should not ‘just be the preserve of the wealthy’, and that ‘power should be in ‘in the hands of the many’.
‘So starting in the most disadvantaged areas, we will ensure patients’ right to choose where they are treated, and we will build up local health services so it’s a genuine choice,’ Mr Streeting added.
It comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC’s Today programme this morning that those who have been off work due to long-term sickness should be trying to get back to work.
He said: ‘In relation to long term sickness, which is at very high levels, then of course people need to look for work, but they also need support and that’s why I’ve gone out to look at schemes where businesses are supporting people back into work from long term sickness because quite often I think what lies behind this is a fear for someone who has been on long term sickness of can they get back in to the workplace, are they going to be able to cope? Is it going to go hopelessly wrong?
‘Yes, they need to get back into the workplace where they can, but I do think that we can put the right support in place which I’ve seen pilots of this, they work pretty well – I want to see more of those across the country so that’s what we need to do.’
Rising ill health and economic inactivity was highlighted in July by the Office of National Statistics, which found that between 2019 and 2022, the percentage of people who reported a long-term health condition that limited the amount of work they could do rose from 16.4% to 18.1%, with this being the largest contributing factor to the rise in economic inactivity.
Earlier this month, NHS Confederation called for better integration and collaboration to tackle the cost of long-term sickness related economic inactivity, saying there were around 900,000 more economically inactive people since 2020 across the UK, 85% of which are long-term sick.
Ahead of Darzi review’s publication, the health secretary set out three ‘strategic shifts’ for the NHS’ which included moving care from ‘hospital to community’.
Lord Ara Darzi’s review highlighted tensions between ICBs and providers and hailed neighbourhood working as the way forward for the health service.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
