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Cutting NHS waiting times by delivering 40,000 more evening and weekend appointments is one of six new election pledges from Labour.
Launched today, the pledges include setting up a border security command, recruiting, 6,500 new teachers in England, and creating Great British Energy to generate clean energy and cut bills.
It says it wants to pay doctors and nurses overtime rates to take on additional shifts as well as setting up shared waiting lists and collaboration between hospitals. This means that a patient can be seen more quickly at a neighbouring hospital if they agree, rather than waiting at their assigned hospital.
Labour’s plan also includes:
- Dentistry Rescue Plan to provide 700,000 extra appointments each year.
- A Neighbourhood Health Service as part of an overall aim to move care closer to communities.
- Doubling the number of state-of-the-art CT and MRI scanners to ensure early diagnosis.
- Better public health.
- Recruit 8,500 additional mental health staff to drive down waiting lists.
It says this will all be fully funded by scrapping the loophole which allows some rich people who live in the UK to avoid paying tax. The mental health professionals including in schools is paid for by ending the tax breaks for
private schools.
Labour will be the government that finally transforms our NHS
The mission document added: “The NHS waiting list is now at almost 8 million. Ambulances don’t come when you need them. The 8am scramble for a GP appointment is the final straw for many patients. Dentistry is in crisis with tooth decay the number one cause of hospital admissions among children aged between six and ten years old.
“Waiting times for cancer patients have got worse every year since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. Around, 500,000 suspected cancer patients waited longer than the recommended two weeks to see a specialist after being referred by their GP. Equally the waiting list for community mental health care in England hit 1.2 million last year.
“Labour will always defend the founding principles of the NHS as a publicly funded public service, free at
the point of use. But we need to be frank. The NHS is no longer the envy of the world. We say that not to undermine it, but to reassure people that we’ve noticed. The message of modernise or die is not a threat but a choice. Labour will be the government that finally transforms our NHS to make it a service fit for today.”