Sir Keir Starmer to launch plan for two million more NHS appointments
Sir Keir Starmer will launch his plan to deliver millions more appointments across the NHS and to reduce waiting times to 18 weeks over the next five years.
The prime minister will lay out how greater access to community diagnostic centres (CDCs) will help deliver up to half a million more appointments, alongside 14 new surgical hubs and three expanded existing hubs.
Up to a million appointments could be freed up by giving patients the choice to forego follow-up appointments currently booked by default, the government says.
Overall, the plan will involve a drive to deliver two million extra appointments by the end of next year.
The aim of the reforms is that by the end of March 2026, an extra 450,000 patients will be treated within 18 weeks.
Figures published by NHS England last month showed an estimated 7.54 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of October – the lowest figure since March 2024.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the last time the NHS met the target of 92% of patients receiving treatment within 18 weeks was in 2015.
The reforms for England will also see an overhaul of the NHS app to give patients greater choice over where they choose to have their appointment and will also provide greater detail to the patient including their results and waiting times.
The first step in the digital overhaul will be completed by March 2025, when patients at over 85% of acute trusts will be able to view their appointment details via the NHS app, the government said.
They’ll also be able to contact their provider and receive updates, including how long they are likely to wait for treatment.
In the effort to free-up one million appointments, patients will be given more choice over non-essential follow up appointments, while GPs will also be given funding to receive specialist advice from doctors before they make any referrals.
Sir Keir is expected to say: “This government promised change and that is what I am fighting every day to deliver.
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“NHS backlogs have ballooned in recent years, leaving millions of patients languishing on waiting lists, often in pain or fear. Lives on hold. Potential unfulfilled.
“This 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.”
The CDCs will be open 12 hours a day and seven days a week wherever possible. Patients will be able to access a broader range of appointments in locations that are more convenient for them and which may speed up the pace of treatment.
The government believes its plan will help it to deliver the equivalent to 40,000 extra appointments a week in its first year – which was one of Sir Keir’s six key pledges.
Chancellor Rachel Reeve pledged £22bn over the next two years to cut NHS waiting times in her October budget, but some in the sector fear a workforce shortage means the prime minister’s ambitions will be hard to achieve.
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There have been some concerns that giving patients choice of the location of their treatment may see some hospitals in greater demand than others – but Health Secretary Wes Streeting said this was a “matter of principle”.
“When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, I was inundated with colleagues in parliament who were asking who my surgeon was, whether I was going to the best place for treatment, whether I was exercising my right to choose in the NHS,” he said.
“Now, it turned out I had one of the best kidney cancer surgeons in the country assigned to me by the NHS, so I was lucky.
“But frankly, someone like my mum as a cleaner should have as much choice and power in the NHS as her son, the health secretary.”
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the government’s plan was an “ambitious blueprint”.
“The radical reforms in this plan will not only allow us to deliver millions more tests, appointments and operations, but do things differently too – boosting convenience and putting more power in the hands of patients, especially through the NHS app.”
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Zendaya and Tom Holland are rumoured to be engaged after the 28-year-old actress appeared at the Golden Globes wearing a massive diamond ring on her left ring finger.
They met after working together on 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and confirmed their relationship in 2021.
Sky News has contacted representatives for Zendaya and Holland for comment.
Zendaya and Tom Holland pose for photographers at the photo call for the film ”Spider-Man: No Way Home”. Pic: Invision/AP
Zendaya chatted to journalists on the Globes red carpet, where she was nominated for best actress in a musical or comedy for her role in the romantic sports drama Challengers.
Despite being pipped to the prize by Demi Moore, who won for her role in body horror The Substance, there was plenty of buzz around Zendaya’s large diamond ring, which was clearly visible throughout the show.
A Los Angeles Times reporter appeared to ask Zendaya about it, holding up her own engagement ring and pointing to it. Zendaya responded by showing her left-hand ring.
Zendaya arrives at the 82nd Golden Globes. Pic: Invision/AP
The reporter then asked if the actor was engaged and “she kept showing her ring, smiled coyly and shrugged her shoulders mysteriously”.
Holland, who is also 28, wasn’t at Sunday’s Globes.
Zendaya arrives at the 82nd Golden Globes. Pic: Invision/AP
Zendaya wore an orange Louis Vuitton ball gown, and diamond jewellery from Bulgari – for which she’s an ambassador – on the Globes red carpet.
But while the Dune star’s other jewellery items were listed in a press release, there was no mention of the ring on her left finger.
Zendaya, who rose to fame after her breakout role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, became a household star after starring in Euphoria.
Tom Holland, who is the son of British actor/comedian Dominic Holland, won a role in Billy Elliot The Musical as a child, and has gone on to achieve global fame playing Spider-Man in six Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
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