Starmer vows to prioritise youngsters for NHS remedy to finish waits over 18 weeks
Keir Starmer has pledged to finish the scandal of youngsters ready for NHS hospital remedy inside the first 5 years of a Labour authorities.
The Labour chief will order well being bosses to prioritise kids caught up in report NHS ready lists and can “personally monitor” progress if he wins energy. NHS information launched on Thursday confirmed 180,937 youngsters had been ready longer than 18 weeks for remedy whereas a staggering 18,632 had been ready greater than a yr in November 2023.
Waiting lists of over 18 weeks amongst kids stood 95,098 in November 2021.
Labour has beforehand pledged to finish waits of greater than 18 weeks for sufferers – an NHS England goal that has not been met since 2016. But the social gathering mentioned a Labour authorities would write to native well being leaders – built-in care boards – to offer them “strategic direction to prioritise children’s waiting lists”.
Mr Starmer, who visited Alder Hey kids’s hospital in Liverpool, mentioned: “When children are waiting over a year for treatment, that is dangerous and damaging for their long-term health. Children waiting for huge proportions of their life for hospital treatment is heartbreaking, causes immense stress for their parents, presses pause on family life, and they need to end.”
He added: “The biggest casualty of the short term ‘sticking plaster’ politics of the last 14 years are our nation’s children. My Labour government will turn this trend around, and I will personally monitor the speed at which we do. My government’s mission-led way of working will deliver the change the NHS needs, with a drive from the heart of government to see children’s waits for treatment end.”
It got here as Mr Starmer launched into the primary of his fortnightly excursions throughout the nation to advertise the social gathering’s “missions” for presidency. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting additionally defended Labour’s plans to handle tooth decay amongst youngsters with supervised toothbrushing in free breakfast golf equipment.
Pressed on whether or not he was bothered by descriptions of the insurance policies being “nanny state” interventions, the Shadow Health Secretary mentioned: “I think there’s going to be worse name calling than this in the run-up to the general election and if the Conservatives think they’re going to win by slinging mud and people will forget 14 years of misery, failure and grotesque incompetence, they’ve got another think coming.”
He added: “‘I’m more affronted or offended over the fact we’ve got children sitting in hospitals aged between six and 10 and the number one cause of their admission is tooth decay. I’m angry there are 200,000 young people on mental health waiting lists.”
