NHS waiting lists are set to grow further still, a health minister warned today.
On the 75th anniversary of the service, Maria Caulfield said the mega queue of 7.4 million patients in England will rise before falling.
ReutersOn the 75th anniversary of the NHS, Health Minister Maria Caulfield has warned record waiting lists are set to grow longer[/caption]
GettyThis morning Rishi Sunak attended an anniversary ceremony as part of the health service’s 75th anniversary celebrations at Westminster Abbey[/caption]
ReutersGuests at the NHS anniversary ceremony at Westminster Abbey included political leaders and health service staff[/caption]
It comes as think tanks have warned the NHS faces “huge challenges” and is in a “critical condition”.
In a letter to Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, chiefs at the King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust said “pressures on services are extreme and public satisfaction is at its lowest since it first began to be tracked 40 years ago”.
The health leaders added support for the NHS is “rock solid” but “investment and reform” is desperately needed.
The letter said: “We urge you to make the next election a decisive break point by ending years of short-termism in NHS policy-making… promising unachievable, unrealistically fast improvements without a long-term plan to address the underlying causes of the current crisis is a strategy doomed to failure.”
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Despite the gloomy warning, Ms Caulfield told Times Radio the service would be “thriving” in the future.
“We’re now seeing record levels of investment into staff, into our infrastructure with our new surgical hubs, community diagnostic centres, new hospitals, but also the way we treat people as well,” she said.
But the ex-nurse also said record waiting lists are set to rise.
The 7.4 million figure “probably will go up higher because we are offering more procedures,” the minister told Sky News.
She added: “To patients, what matters is how long they’re waiting.
“They’re not really worried about who else is on the waiting list.
“They want to know when their procedure or operation is happening, and we’ve significantly reduced that delay.
“We’ve virtually eliminated a two-year wait.”
This morning the PM and Labour leader attended a church service to commemorate 75 years of free healthcare.
The pair both gave readings to “pay tribute” to the service in front of hundreds of politicians and health workers.
This morning Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting argued the NHS is a “service not a shrine” and called on colleagues to stop treating it like a “national religion”.
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“We’ve got to stop thinking of it as a national religion and make sure that it is an institution and a system that delivers the best outcomes,” he said.
“It’s got the potential to do that, but it does needs reform. And just as only Nixon could go to China, I’d wager that only Labour is capable of reforming the NHS.”