Unions claim that the government must address the NHS workforce crisis if they are to achieve ambitious goals to reduce waiting list length.
Today (6 January), Prime Minister Keir starmer announced plans for reducing waiting lists in England to 18 weeks or less. He also launched a network Community Diagnostic Centres, where patients could go to appointments like scans.
Only 59% of patients are able to meet the target in 18 weeks, and 3 million have to wait longer. The government hopes that by March 2026 this number will be 65% and clear a backlog of over 450,000 patients.
The government announced that the new diagnostic centres would be open 24 hours a day and seven days a weeks. The government also plans to create more surgical hubs, which can perform less complicated procedures like cataract surgery.
The NHS App should be enhanced so that patients can book appointments, monitor their conditions, receive test results, and reduce the number missed appointments.
Starmer stated that the plans will provide “greater convenience and choice for patients.” Staff can now provide the care that they so desperately desire.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, however, stated that the government cannot ignore the challenges facing workers in the healthcare service.
After so many years neglecting our NHS and letting it deteriorate, this government must now be ready to invest.
“Ministers should be clear that any improvement will depend on the ability to address the recruitment and retention crises that are sweeping the service. This crisis is a result of the real-term wage cuts that the previous government imposed for years on the workers.”
Graham stated that NHS workers were “on their knees”, with the current demands. He added that expecting more of them would be “both unachievable and unacceptable”.
She said that the government’s plans for cutting waiting lists would only succeed if they put the issues facing NHS workers in the center of their plans.
Professor Phil Banfield of the British Medical Association Council, who chairs that body, shared Graham’s concern. He said that doctors were just as frustrated by the lack facilities for delivering care as their patients and wanted to reduce waiting lists.
We will not make the progress that we hope to see without a workforce capable of meeting the constantly increasing demand.
Former president of the Society for Acute Medicine Dr Tim Cooksley said in an interview with The Guardian that plans to reduce bureaucracy, and to speed up access elective services, were welcomed. Emergency care plans require urgent attention.
He said: There is not enough workforce or capacity to deal with the increasing number of people with health problems, and no resilience for any extra strains, like winter viruses.
Hospitals are already overflowing. It is both immoral and delusional to continue to restrict elective beds while patients are dying in emergency departments or receiving degrading care on corridors.
Cooksley advocates a “whole system” approach, which includes social care and places workforce reform in the center.
