This new Labour government has announced plans to invest in – and reform – our NHS and tackle the 7.5 million-strong waiting list inherited from the last government. Leigh and Atherton MP – Jo Platt – has welcomed this announcement, as she feels that it will help the NHS to get back on track.
Keir Starmer set out the government’s plan to invest in – and reform – our health service. It includes:
- Upgrading the NHS App, so patients can book and rearrange appointments, choose which hospital to be treated at, receive test results, and choose if they want to be seen in person or remotely.
- Cutting more than a million missed appointments, by reminding patients and allowing them to rearrange if they can’t make it.
- Rewarding trusts that cut waiting times fastest with extra funding.
- Allowing GPs to refer patients directly for tests and scans, cutting out unnecessary specialist appointments.
- Giving patients the choice of whether they want routine follow-up appointments, freeing up a million pointless appointments a year, for patients who need them.
- Paying GPs to keep patients out of hospital and treat them in the community instead, when that’s the best place for them to be.
- These reforms are about making the NHS work more efficiently, shifting care from hospital to the community, and giving patients greater choice and a more convenient experience.
Jo Platt, MP for Leigh and Atherton, said: “One of the key goals is to cut waiting times down from 18 months to a maximum of 18 weeks, something the last government failed to achieve in over a decade.
“To fix our NHS and make it a service that the people of Leigh and Atherton can be proud of, it must be modernised. These plans for reform will help us to get our NHS back to where it needs to be.”