Today Labour has set out its plan to bring down waiting lists in five years, as Shadow Minister Preet Kaur Gill accuses the Tories of squandering “a golden inheritance” on waiting lists in Birmingham.
Official NHS waiting time statistics for referrals to treatment show that University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHBFT), which includes Queen Elizabeth Hospital, was treating 98.3% of patients on time when the Conservatives took office in 2010. Today that figure is 48.2%.
The NHS target for the percentage of patients to start treatment within 18 weeks is 92%, and has not been met by UHBFT since May 2018. It means that over 126,000 patients are waiting to start treatment in Birmingham, according to the latest month’s data. Nationally, the figure stands at 7.5 million.
Despite Rishi Sunak’s promise to cut waiting lists, they are hundreds of thousands higher today, and are rising according to last month’s NHS figures.
Labour’s plan to clear the Tories’ NHS waiting list backlog in five years includes:
As a first step, 40,000 extra appointments, scans, and operations a week, during evenings and weekends
Double the number of scanners to diagnose patients earlier
Deliver the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history
Use spare capacity in the private sector, free of charge to patients
Reform the NHS to get more out of the service for what we put in
The extra appointments and scanners will cost £1.3 billion and will be paid for by clamping down on tax dodgers and closing non-dom tax loopholes.
Shadow Health Minister and Labour candidate for Birmingham, Edgbaston Preet Kaur Gill MP, commented:
“Over 14 years, the Conservatives have taken the golden inheritance left by the last Labour government and wrecked it. Their neglect, incompetence, and underinvestment in the NHS has left millions of people waiting in pain and agony.
“If the Conservatives get another five years then nothing will change, the crisis in the NHS will get worse, and waiting lists will hit 10 million. The longer the Conservatives are in charge, the longer patients will wait.
“Labour will deliver an extra 40,000 appointments a week at evenings and weekends, the first step on our mission to beat the Tory backlog. We will pay for it by clamping down on tax dodgers.”
Ends
Notes
Incomplete RTT pathway data from end of April 2010: [ARCHIVED CONTENT] Referral To Treatment Waiting Times Archive (Provider Data 2010) : Department of Health - Publications (nationalarchives.gov.uk)
Latest incomplete RTT pathway data from end of March 2024: Statistics » Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times Data 2023-24 (england.nhs.uk)
Comments