The Government has said its ten-year plan for NHS reform will not be unveiled until next spring.
At last week’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Health Secretary Wes Streeting discussed NHS reform in some detail, but spent more time criticising the previous Conservative government.
Keir Starmer’s speech earlier in September, where he said the NHS ‘must reform or die’, came in response to the Lord Darzi report which suggested the service was in a critical condition.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, who chairs the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “In hopes these reforms will change how we do things, as GPs, we are up for it.
“It’s time to reset how we deliver health in our country.”
In his speech at conference, Streeting said: “The left must accept reform, or there will be no health service, at least not as we recognise it.”
The PM’s ten-year plan came with the caveat that no extra funding will be given until reform occurs.
Starmer wants to make an extra 40,000 weekly appointments, scans and operations available for patients in England.
Latest data shows that the waiting list for hospital treatment rose to nearly 7.8million in September 2023, despite NHS England staff numbers increasing with 26% more doctors and 24% more nurses than five years ago.
There are questions around where the funding will come from, with nurses at Buckinghamshire NHS Trust criticising the lack of clarity coming from government.
They said: “The Government needs to have the proper budget for the NHS and all the staff, making people more interested in working there.”
The BBC reported that Streeting’s claims that the NHS is ‘broken’ have increased unease about accessing healthcare services.
But Streeting stood firm in his commitment to protect the NHS’ core value: “We will always defend our NHS as a public service, free at the point of use.
“Our ten-year plan will give all patients – rich and poor alike – the same information, the same choice, the same control.”
Streeting also said Labour supporters have to accept higher taxation to ensure healthcare is available for all.
While preparing for the future, technology like AI could be utilised to improve cancer detection on mammograms, for example, and also help predict the long-term risk of invasive breast cancers.
AI tools could also help make high-quality care accessible to more patients, even those who live far from cancer specialists or in low-resource settings, potentially helping to reduce cancer health disparities.
However, if data used to train AI models are not appropriately diverse and representative of the broader population, these models can perpetuate medical bias.
There is a need for broadly accepted and adopted standards for the development of AI and machine learning models to mitigate bias and ensure reproducibility.
Labour will introduce a new ‘Fit For the Future’ fund to double the number of CT, AI and MRI scanners, allowing the NHS to detect cancer and other conditions earlier, saving lives.
The promise of reform has been met with a wave of support from charities and organisations.
Marianne Radcliffe, CEO of Crohn’s & Colitis UK, said there is a lack of patient support for those with inflammatory bowel diseases with around 70,000 living in London alone.
She said: “We all know there is no quick fix for the NHS, but we welcome the Government’s promise to turn our health service around.
“The patient voice must be put at the heart of these reforms.
“Only by working with patients, staff and charities like Crohn’s & Colitis UK can we ensure high-quality care for all in the future.”
The Royal College of Midwives chief executive Gill Walton said: “Of all of the issues that keep him [Wes Streeting] awake at night, maternity safety is top of the list, so we remain optimistic and hopeful that our new government understands these pressing issues.”
The nurses at Buckinghamshire Trust also wished to encourage healthy eating and a more active lifestyle to reduce childhood obesity and welcomed the government’s ban on junk food ads on TV before 9pm from October 2025.
