Sir Keir Starmer says there is no money for the NHS without reform, as he admits plan will take ‘years not months’
The NHS will not get any more funding without reforming, Sir Keir Starmer has said as he laid out a 10-year plan to fix the health service.
The prime minister stressed his plans to build an NHS fit for the future “do not just mean putting more money in”, and will take a decade to complete.
Politics Live: Damning NHS report gives Starmer mandate for change
Delivering a speech at the King’s Fund in central London, he said: “We have to fix the plumbing before we turn on the taps.
“So, hear me when I say this, no more money without reform.”
The government has promised three “big shifts” in its approach to fix the NHS:
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We’re getting NHS back on its feet’
• Using more technology to create a “digital NHS”
• Shifting more care out of hospitals and into communities
• Moving from treating sickness to focusing on prevention
Describing problems in the NHS, Sir Keir said he wasn’t prepared to spend money “on agency staff who cost £5,000 a shift, on appointment letters which arrive after the appointment, or on paying for people to be stuck in hospital just because they can’t get the care they need in the community”.
“Tonight, there will be 12,000 patients in that very position – that’s enough to fill 28 hospitals.
“That isn’t just solved by more money, it’s solved by reform.”
Starmer. Pic: Reuters
Sir Keir was speaking as NHS performance stats dropped showing the overall waiting list for treatment remained unchanged in July, with an estimated 7.62 million procedures waiting to be carried relating to 6.39 million patients.
The list hit a record high in September 2023 with 7.77 million treatments, after which the figures fell for several months before rising in April, May and June of this year.
Dr Nick Murch, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the new NHS figures “demonstrate the scale of the short-term challenge”.
In a Q&A after his speech, the prime minister would not be drawn on how soon patients could expect to see improvements.
Asked by Sky News health correspondent Ashish Joshi what he would tell somebody who is ill now, Sir Keir said the success of his plans “is going to be measured in years, not months”.
He said: “I accept the challenge to me, which is that it’s going to take a long time, it’s going to be measured in years, not months, and we need to have something to say for someone who is ill now, which is getting the NHS back on its feet.
“But we can’t duck the long-term change.”
The speech comes after a report commissioned by the new government found the NHS is in a “critical condition”, with record waiting lists and too much of its budget spent in hospitals.
The study, carried out by independent peer and surgeon Lord Darzi, argues the NHS is facing rising demand for care as people live longer in ill health, coupled with low productivity in hospitals and poor staff morale.
It criticises political decision-making under the Conservatives and the coalition government, including the impact of austerity, a “starvation of investment” and the reorganisation of the NHS under the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, which Lord Darzi called “a calamity without international precedent”.
👉 Tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts 👈
This meant the COVID pandemic came “when resilience was at an all-time low”, he said.
The report also said “long waits have become normalised”, cancer care lags behind other countries, and describes A&E as being “in an awful state”.
Sir Keir said the Tories “broke the NHS” and “only a Labour government” can reform it, adding that it must “reform or die”.
A man’s body has been recovered from an area of flooding in North Yorkshire, police have said, as major incidents have been declared in two counties.
The body was found near Intake Lane in Beal, close to Eggborough and Knottingley.
Police believe the man may have entered the water in the last 24 to 48 hours.
Follow the latest on the weather
North Yorkshire Police said: “Despite extensive enquiries, including with our colleagues in Humberside and West Yorkshire Police, we have been unable to identify him.
“He was found without any identification or personal belongings.”
The man was also described as white, in his early 50s to 60s, with light brown short hair and stubble.
He was wearing brown walking boots, blue denim jeans, a multicoloured knitted jumper and possibly a dark green waterproof coat, police added.
It comes after Leicestershire and Lincolnshire both declared a major incident in response to the extreme weather hitting the UK and Ireland.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue was the first emergency service in England to declare an incident and said it had received more than 200 calls since Monday morning over widespread flooding.
Crews had found cars stuck in floodwater and evacuated residents from flooded homes and rising waters, with some 17 people rescued as of 1.45pm.
The Lincolnshire Resilience Forum declared a major incident shortly after, and noted that emergency services had rescued children who were stranded at a school in Edenham.
Meanwhile, the Met Office has three yellow weather warnings – each for snow and ice – in effect throughout Monday evening and Tuesday morning.
Pic: Met Office
A warning covering the west and north coast of Scotland – reaching into Inverness and Aberdeen – will last until midday, while an alert in effect for all of Northern Ireland will last until 11am.
The Met Office has also issued a warning covering Wales and parts of northwest England on Monday evening, moving into southwest England, the Midlands and parts of southern England in the early hours of Tuesday.
On Wednesday, a yellow weather warning for snow is in effect across the south of England – stretching from just above Truro in Cornwall to Canterbury in Kent – from 9am to midnight.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway