The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to end hospital backlogs in his new ‘plan for change’.
Speaking at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire on Thursday, Sir Keir set out six ‘ambitious yet honest’ milestones by which to track the government’s progress throughout its term in office.
One of these milestones was to meet the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment.
He said he wanted to see ‘waiting lists in our NHS cut. The 18-week target from referral to treatment – finally met. A symbol of an NHS back on its feet, facing the future, dignity and care restored to millions.’
Though he added: ‘We face an almighty challenge to hit these milestones by the end of this Parliament.’
In response to the speech, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund said the target could potentially ‘lock’ the NHS into a hospital focus.
She said: ‘The government appears to be reconsidering its earlier commitment to meet all current NHS targets within one parliamentary term. They are right to do so, but in choosing to prioritise a target for hospital care, they are locking the NHS into a hospital focus that could undermine more fundamental and long-lasting reform.
‘To seriously drive change, ministers should conduct a more wide-ranging and fundamental review of health service targets so that they incentivise the improvements to services that patients need.’
She added: ‘Hospital waits have never been – and should not be – the main measure of how the NHS is performing. Patients and the public are also struggling to get a GP appointment and unable to get support with social care. The 18-week target is an important hospital milestone, but it is not a milestone for our overall health service.’
Chief executive of the Health Foundation, Dr Jennifer Dixon added: ‘Although it is a right under the NHS Constitution, the target that 92% of patients should receive hospital treatment within 18 weeks of referral from their GP has not been met for nearly a decade. This shows how far standards slipped under previous governments and the scale of the challenge ahead.
‘Our analysis indicates that meeting the pledge made today would require improvements similar to those achieved by the last Labour government in the 2000s. This took many years, was backed by a more significant increase in funding than is likely to be on offer this time and was achieved in more promising circumstances than the NHS faces today.’
She said focus on this aim should not detract from other key priorities, such as the three big shifts from hospital to community, analogue to digital and sickness to prevention.
‘Without significant investment in additional capacity, new technology and skills to streamline care and boost productivity, it is hard to see how these objectives can be squared with the focus on hospital treatment set out by the Prime Minister,’ she said.
Nuffield Trust director of research and policy, Dr Becks Fisher, added that other key commitments were missing from the health missions ‘original version’, including to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England, and reforms to social care.
‘These remain crucial issues, and government must pick them up with every bit as much focus,’ she said.
It comes as a new workforce plan is set to be published in the summer which will focus on GP expansion.
Image: Keir Starmer ©House of Commons
