Sir Keir Starmer is expected to outline several “ambitious but achievable milestones” for the UK government on Thursday, including measures to cut NHS waiting lists from record highs.
Alongside making the UK a clean energy “superpower” and reforming early years education, the Prime Minister will promise the delivery of 92 percent of routine NHS operations and appointments within 18 weeks by March 2029 – a pledge that has sparked criticism.
“If the priority is putting all the money into electives, what we will see is war zone A&E departments and all sorts of other things being sidelined,” a source told the Times.
“It will have a number of casualties, including mental health, community care and waits in A&E.”
The last time the NHS delivered 92 percent of routine operations and appointments within the promised timeframe was almost a decade ago, the news outlet reported.
Fears about parts of the NHS being neglected in favour of the public pledge particularly concern mental health care, with officials reportedly afraid that a rise in spending known as the mental health investment standard could “fall by the wayside” in light of the new plans.
But a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said the changes would help to rescue “an NHS that’s broken”.
“What you are seeing with all these milestones is that they are going to be ambitious – there’s no point in setting milestones that aren’t ambitious – but we do think that they are achievable,” the spokesperson added.
“Tackling waiting lists is a critical step in taking pressures off A&E, off GP services, it’s why it’s been set out as one of the government’s priority aims in office.
“That’s not to say that the government isn’t going to continue to take action on wider priorities in the NHS. We’ve already resolved A&E strikes, making this the first winter in three years that all A&E staff were on the front line rather than the picket line.”
It comes after government minister Pat McFadden told Sky News’ Sunday Morning programme that he expected some people to be doubtful about the “Plan for Change” announcement.
Mr McFadden said: “If we don’t do this, if we don’t set ourselves clear goals for the next few years, the country will simply fall further behind. We are not prepared to let the country fall further behind.”
