'Wes Streeting sets ambitious figure for government - but it's going to take time'
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When Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997, he promised to reduce NHS waiting lists by 100,000 – a pledge he kept in his first term. Wes Streeting is right to tell us this Labour government faces a much greater challenge after the Tories left more than seven million patients without treatment.
The Health Secretary has now set himself an ambitious target to cut this atrocious figure in half – but it is going to take time. One in 10 hospital beds are occupied by those with nowhere else to go so health and social care must be more joined up.
That is both complex and costly, though. Which is why it will take until 2028 before Mr Streeting’s National Care Service plan can be fully worked out. That is not stopping him from making a start though. One million hospital appointments will be freed up by getting GPs to make more specialist diagnoses, and the NHS App will be revamped so patients can see appointments more easily.
That will reduce the number missed, which wastes valuable NHS time and resources. But, as Mr Blair discovered, patients care less about being on a waiting list and more about how long they wait. Mr Streeting is on top of that, too. By dragging the NHS into the digital age, he aims to cut waits from 18 months to 18 weeks.
People are telling pollsters their top priorities are fixing the economy and mending the NHS. After a rocky initial six months, Labour is now getting to grips with both. If we are to have confidence in British justice it must be done and seen to be done. And when it goes wrong, it must be put right at the earliest opportunity. Sam Hallam spent more than seven years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
