We will remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance;
Labour will stop the chaos, end the failure and division of the last 14 years, and turn the page to ensure everyone can thrive.
Cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments every week
Double the number of cancer scanners
A new Dentistry Rescue Plan
8,500 additional mental health staff
Return of the family doctor
The 1945 Labour government founded our National Health Service on principles that have stood the test of time:
The best health services should be available, free for all.
Money should no longer be the passport to the best treatment.
People should get the best that modern science can offer.
For decades the NHS has served us well, with those values enduring.
These are the principles which will underpin the next Labour government’s plan to reform the NHS.
But as we look at the NHS now, it is clearly broken – and the Conservatives broke it.
Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic placed the NHS under unprecedented stress, the reality is waiting lists were at record highs even before it struck.
Rather than healthcare being ‘free for all’, we now find ourselves with a de facto two-tier system – with working people regularly forced to scrape together the means to go private.
Meanwhile, over the past 14 years, the ‘winter crisis’ cycle has become part of the national calendar.
Every year, a new crisis is declared.
Then, every year, the Conservatives reach for a sticking plaster patch-up to get through the winter, without ever addressing the root cause.
This is a situation Labour is familiar with: we have saved the NHS before, and the next Labour Government will do so again.
With Labour, it will always be publicly owned and publicly funded.
But our ambition goes beyond returning the NHS to what it was.
Labour’s mission is to build an NHS fit for the future.
Investment alone won’t be enough to tackle the problems facing the NHS; it must go hand in hand with fundamental reform.
cutting the lives lost to cancer, cardiovascular disease and suicide,
while ensuring people live well for longer.
As we knew in 1945, much avoidable ill health can be prevented.
The factor that is markedly different from the past decades is our understanding of mental health.
Across society, mental health has stepped out of the shadows, yet it is difficult to argue the NHS has kept up.
Indeed, Britain is currently suffering from a mental health epidemic that is paralysing lives, particularly those of children and young people.
This is a tragedy – arguably nothing says more about the state of a nation than the wellbeing of its children.
We should all be able to trust that the NHS will be there for us when we need it, whether it is a GP appointment, an ambulance, or help at A&E.
Labour’s immediate priority on health will be to get a grip on the record waiting list.
We will return to meeting NHS performance standards.
This standard was achieved with the last Labour government and will be again under the next.
Getting the NHS back to working for patients means ending the workforce crisis across both health and social care.
When one in seven people in hospital do not need to be there, joint working is essential.
Labour’s immediate priority on health will be to get a grip on the record waiting list
Too many patients have seen their treatment affected by strikes.
A system reliant on pagers and fax machines is not fit for this decade let alone the next.
Too many cancer deaths could have been prevented with earlier diagnosis.
The NHS has fewer diagnostic scanners per person than other countries, with many ageing machines operating for long after they should.
State of the art scanners with embedded AI are faster and more effective at finding smaller tumours, saving lives.
It is also clear that NHS estates are in a state of disrepair after years of neglect.
The revolution taking place in data and life sciences has the potential to transform our nation’s healthcare.
The Covid-19 pandemic showed how a strong mission-driven industrial strategy, involving government partnering with industry and academia, could turn the tide on a pandemic.
This is the approach we will take in government.
coupled with reformed incentive structures to drive innovation and faster regulatory approval for new technology and medicines.
This means making the process more efficient and accessible, by speeding up recruitment
and giving more people a chance to participate through the NHS app.