Sir Keir Starmer says there is no money for the NHS without reform, as he admits plan will take ‘years not months’

Published

2 months ago

September 12, 2024

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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:

• 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.”

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”.

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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”.

UK

Gatwick Airport: Police release two people who were detained amid security incident as South Terminal reopens

Published

59 mins ago

November 23, 2024

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Gatwick Airport: Police release two people who were detained amid security incident as South Terminal reopens

Two people detained during a security incident at Gatwick Airport have been allowed to continue their journeys after a suspect package saw a “large part” of the South Terminal evacuated.

The terminal was closed for hours after the discovery of a “suspected prohibited item” in a passenger’s luggage sparked an emergency response. It reopened at around 3.45pm.

Officers from the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team “made the package safe” before handing the airport back to its operator, Sussex Police said.

Their statement continued: “Two people who were detained while enquiries were ongoing have subsequently been allowed to continue their journeys.

“There will remain an increased police presence in the area to assist with passengers accessing the South Terminal for onward travel.”

The force also thanked the public and airport staff for their patience while the incident was ongoing.

Earlier the airport, which is the UK’s second busiest, said the terminal was evacuated after a “security incident”.

“The earlier security alert has now been resolved and cleared by police,” it later said in a statement on Friday afternoon.

“The South Terminal is reopening to staff and will be open to passengers shortly.”

Gatwick said some flights were cancelled while others were delayed.

It said passengers should contact their airlines for any updates on flights.

Footage on social media taken outside the airport showed crowds of travellers heading away from the terminal building.

“Arrived at London Gatwick for routine connection. Got through customs to find out they’re evacuating the entire airport,” one passenger said.

“Even people through security are being taken outside. Trains shut down,” another passenger added, who said “thousands” of people were forced to leave.

Another passenger said people near the gates were being told to stay there and not go back to the departure lounge.

People outside the airport were handed blankets and water, passengers told Sky News.

The airport said its North Terminal was still operating normally.

Gatwick Express said its trains did not call at Gatwick Airport during the police response, but the airport said trains would start calling there again once the terminal was fully reopened.

More than 600 flights were due to take off or land at Gatwick on Friday, amounting to more than 121,000 passenger seats, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

UK

Starmer says UK will ‘set out a path’ to raise defence spending to 2.5%

Published

4 hours ago

November 23, 2024

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Starmer says UK will 'set out a path' to raise defence spending to 2.5%

The UK will “set out a path” to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring, the prime minister has said, finally offering a timeframe for an announcement on the long-awaited hike after mounting criticism.

Sir Keir Starmer gave the date during a phone call with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, in the wake of threats by Moscow to target UK and US military facilities following a decision by London and Washington to let Ukraine fire their missiles inside Russia.

There was no clarity though on when the 2.5% level will be achieved. The UK says it currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence.

Ukraine war latest: Follow live updates

A spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the two men “began by discussing the situation in Ukraine and reiterated the importance of putting the country in the strongest possible position going into the winter”.

They also talked about the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia.

“The prime minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.

“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”

The defence review will also be published in the spring.

While a date for an announcement on 2.5% will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, analysts have long warned that such an increase is still well below the amount that is needed to rebuild the armed forces after decades of decline to meet growing global threats from Russia, an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and Iran.

They say the UK needs to be aiming to hit at least 3% – probably higher.

With Donald Trump returning to the White House, there will be significantly more pressure on the UK and other European NATO allies to accelerate increases in defence spending.