'We will be able to do 2 million a year, over the course of the parliament we will get it down and clear the backlog completely’
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to clear the NHS waiting list backlog by the end of the next Parliament, as he answered questions from the audience during the BBC Question Time election debate.
Asked by presenter Fiona Bruce on when waiting lists are likely to come down, Starmer said that “sticking plaster politics” is one of the biggest problems with our political systems, and politicians weren’t honest about the challenges facing the country.
On the specifics of when people can expect an improvement in the NHS, Starmer replied that a Labour government would start working on bringing down waiting lists from day one.
He said: “We will be able to do 2 million a year, over the course of the parliament we will get it down and clear the backlog completely’.
Under the Tories NHS waiting lists have reached record highs, with figures released earlier this month showing that the hospital backlog in England has gone up slightly over the past month.
The waiting list hit 7.57 million at the end of April, up from 7.54 million the previous month. Rishi Sunak vowed to tackle the high numbers in January 2023, when it stood at 7.21 million treatments.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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