The NHS is heading into this winter facing the biggest crisis in its history. People are finding it impossible to see a GP when they need to and 24 hours in A&E is no longer just a TV programme, but the grim reality for patients. When patients call 999 in an emergency, they can no longer be sure an ambulance will reach them in time.
Behind the statistics are people suffering, for months or even years, putting their lives on hold because of their pain. Thousands of people are forced out of work because they are waiting for operations or have to look after elderly relatives who can’t get the care they need. Young people still dealing with the mental health scars of lockdown wait years for any help, so cannot begin their working lives.
All are being held back from living their lives to the full and contributing to Britain’s economic success. The Conservatives have never understood that the economy grows from the ground up and the middle out, not the top down. We won’t build a healthy economy without a healthy society.
With no plan to fix the NHS this winter, the government is instead planning to blame nurses and paramedics, the heroes who got us through the pandemic while Downing Street partied. The government’s approach is as dangerous as it is disgraceful. By refusing to negotiate with health unions, it is attempting to wash its hands of the NHS winter crisis, leaving patients and staff to pay the price. If the Conservatives have given up governing, they should step aside.
If Labour were in government, we would be pulling every lever available to bring down NHS waiting times, including negotiating to avert strike action. We would also be using spare capacity in the private sector to bring down waiting lists. Private providers have capacity for 130% of the procedures they were doing for the NHS before the pandemic, but the government hasn’t utilised it.
Had a Labour government been in office this year, hundreds of thousands more patients would have been treated on the NHS in private hospitals. Those people would today have new hips, clear eyesight or reconstructed knees. They could be off NHS waiting lists, back in work and able to enjoy their lives to the full again.
This treatment would be provided free at the point of need. There are some who nevertheless say this is a betrayal of leftwing values. To them I say, there is nothing progressive about leaving working-class people languishing on waiting lists in serious pain. I’m not going to leave working-class people priced out and left out while those who can pay are seen faster. That’s the two-tier healthcare system I want to end.
In the long-term, we need to build the capacity in the NHS so that all patients who need it can be treated on time again. Labour has pledged the biggest expansion of medical training in history, training an extra 7,500 doctors and 10,000 nurses and midwives every year, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status. Patients need treatment more than the wealthiest need a tax break.
We have to go further. We cannot continue pouring money into a 20th-century model of care, if we are to meet the challenges of the 21st century. To make our NHS fit for the future, the next Labour government will agree a 10-year plan of change and modernisation. I have been attacked for this commitment by some who have suggested that reform is as much a danger to the NHS as privatisation.
I love the NHS. There were lots of things I worried about when I went through treatment for kidney cancer, but the one thing I never had to worry about was the bill. The NHS is free at the point of use and funded through progressive taxation because Labour created it and those are our values. They will be erased over my dead body.
Nye Bevan said in 1948 that “this service must always be changing, growing and improving”. In the Labour party, we have always understood that the NHS needs to change to adapt to modern challenges. Today, the NHS must do better for patients who are being badly let down. It is those opponents of reform who prove themselves to be the true conservatives.
The truth is that we spend far too much money in our hospitals because we don’t focus enough on prevention, early intervention and social care. As a result, patients end up in A&E because they can’t get a GP appointment, reach crisis point because they can’t get mental health support, or are trapped in hospital because there is no social care available.
The next Labour government will shift the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community. Doubling the number of district nurses qualifying each year will see more patients treated in the comfort of their own homes. Training 5,000 new health visitors will help all children have a healthy start to life. Keir Starmer’s pledge to put mental health support in every school will finally address the crisis hitting young people.
At the same time, Britain can lead the revolution in medical science and technology, which has the potential to transform patient care. At-home tests and virtual wards mean people can be diagnosed and cared for surrounded by their loved ones. That is the future of healthcare. If health issues can be caught earlier, so treatment can be faster and less invasive, it is better for the patient and less expensive for the taxpayer.
This tired, clapped-out government is unable to lift its sights to the challenges and opportunities of the future. Only Labour can give Britain the fresh start it needs.
Wes Streeting is the shadow health secretary
