Labour has been warned their pledge to clear the NHS backlog within five years will prove “highly stretching” and “no easy feat” by economists and policy experts.
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce later today that a Labour government will cut NHS waiting lists and promise to clear the 3.2m backlog in England of people waiting more than 18 months for treatment within five years.
The Labour leader has already pledged that reducing waiting lists will be “the first step” in his government’s plan to get the health service “back on its feet… clearing the Tory backlog”.
But the announcement was interrupted by the furore over whether veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott, who has been suspended, would be able to stand in Hackney North after the party whip was restored and confirmation junior doctors would strike over pay during the election.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said Labour would use AI-enabled scanners and the independent sector to tackle waiting times, including doubling the amount of scanners.
“Plenty of people in this country are now opting out of the NHS who are able to pay to go private and I’m not prepared to see working class people left behind, while operating theatres are left empty in those hospitals,” he told the BBC Radio Four Today programme.
The party says it would focus on cutting the treatment backlog (7.54m people are on NHS waiting lists according to the party) by creating an extra 40,000 appointments, scans and operations at evenings and weekends and sending in “crack teams” already running out-of-hours programmes into hospitals.
But Labour has been warned that their plans, set to cost around £1.3bn, would be “highly stretching,” according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The party says it will be funded by clamping down on tax dodgers and non-dom rules.
IFS research economist Max Warner warned while the pledge was a “serious sign of ambition”, previous Labour governments upped health spending by seven per cent a year.
“The challenging fiscal situation facing the next government will make it incredibly difficult to increase health spending at anywhere near similar rates, and will make achieving this commitment much harder,” he said.
While Chris Thomas, from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), added: “Soaring waiting lists are a dual crisis for our health and our economy.
“Getting through the backlog in five years will be no easy feat – and it will take significant, on-going political commitment and investment.”
But Thomas stressed: “It is achievable, and if successful would improve public health and revitalise our economy.”
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins described the plans as “more ‘copy and paste’ politics from Labour, who have no plan”.
Atkins said the health service “has faced unprecedented challenges which it can only overcome if supported by a strong economy”.
She insisted the Tories “have a clear plan and will take bold action to strengthen the economy and continue to deliver the technology and innovation the NHS needs to keep cutting waiting lists”.