Starmer Pledges to End NHS Waiting List Backlog With Millions More Appointments

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech on his 'plan for change' commitments on health care during a visit to Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom, Surrey, England, on Jan. 6, 2025. Leon Neal/PA Wire

Millions of patients will be able to access more appointments closer to home and during weekends and evenings, in a bid to bring down high NHS waiting lists.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that under the plans revealed on Monday, two million extra appointments will be made available in the first year, equivalent to 40,000 more every week.

This will be delivered by increasing the number of locations that provide medical services, using more technology solutions, and expanding the relationship between the NHS and the private health care sector.

The measures form part of the government’s Elective Reform Plan, which aims to get the NHS in a position where it is hitting the 18-week referral-to-treatment target by the end of this parliament.

There is currently 7.5 million patients on waiting lists for NHS services.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that the Elective Reform Plan “will deliver on our promise to end the backlogs. Millions more appointments. Greater choice and convenience for patients. Staff once again able to give the standard of care they desperately want to.”

Community Diagnostic Centres

Up to half a million more appointments are expected to be created in total every year by expanding the use of Community Diagnostic Centres.

These centres will be open seven days a week, 12 hours a day, so that patients can access tests and health checks closer to home and at times more convenient to them.

The NHS will also be creating 14 new surgical hubs within existing hospitals and expanding three others.

These will focus on undertaking common surgeries, with the DHSC saying this will cut waiting lists for standard surgeries and free up beds in acute wards that are needed for complex cases.

Expanding Partnership With Private Health Care

Outlining the plans in a speech during a visit to the Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom in Surrey, the prime minister also announced that the government would be expanding the relationship between the NHS and the private health care sector.

Speaking to the media after delivering his speech, Starmer rejected the notion that increased use of the independent sector signalled a move towards privatisation of the NHS.

Starmer said that private sector support “is not new” and “clearly we need to make best use of it” to cut wait times.

“I’m not ideological about this. Where there’s capacity that can be used that will help us deliver in the NHS, then we will continue with that partnership,” he said.

Use of Tech

The prime minister also said that there will be an “AI revolution in healthcare,” as he outlined how technology would play a bigger part in increasing efficiency in the NHS.

The DHSC said AI will form a “central part of the government’s mission to rebuild the NHS” and will be used to save up to one million appointments each year by predicting which are mostly likely be missed.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech on his 'plan for change' commitments on health care during a visit to Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom, Surrey, England, on Jan. 6, 2025. Leon Neal/PA Wire

Remote monitoring technology will also be deployed, such as wearable items that collect health data without patients needing to see a doctor in-person.

The NHS app has also been upgraded to give patients more control over their treatment, including improved access to information such as details of appointments and results, as well as allowing people to book appointments in a location of their choice.

‘No New Ideas’

Responding to the government’s plans, the Conservative Party said that Labour was “building on our foundations” which were set out in the previous parliament, specifically in terms of diagnostic centres.

Shadow health secretary Ed Argar told reporters the announcement showed that Starmer’s government has “no new ideas of their own for the NHS—despite promising change.”

“Patients cannot wait for more dither and delay from the Government who promised so much, and so far have delivered so little,” Argar added.

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund think, said that while pledges to reduce long waits for hospital care was a “worthy goal,” the 18-week referral-to-treatment target “should not be taken as the sole measure of how the NHS is faring.”

“Equally important to people are how long they are waiting for a GP appointment or an ambulance, for mental health care and for other services,” Woolnough said.

Professor Phil Banfield, chairman of British Medical Association council, warned against an overreliance on technology in case it alienates patients who do not have access to smartphones or tablets.

“We already have a two-tier health system—those who can and cannot pay to access care. We must guard against creating a third tier of the disenfranchised vulnerable, whose needs are often greatest, with the fewest choices in their lives already,” Banfield said.