A proposal to spend £1.1bn to fund two million additional hospital appointments per year has been announced by Sir Keir Starmer. The initiative, which could result in 40,000 out-of-hours appointments being available each week in England, is part of the Labour Party’s plans for the National Health Service. The funding for the appointments would reportedly be raised through the ending of the non-dom tax status. Sir Keir also announced plans for the creation of specialist, further education colleges to help tackle skills shortages affected local areas. Labour’s pledge to work with local political leaders and businesses in order to identify and solve these shortages is reflective of the party’s overall conference theme of boosting economic growth.
Labour plans to use the money from an apprenticeship levy revamp in order to set up the “technical excellence colleges.” These will help to equip workers to meet the demands of local industries, with a particular focus on sectors such as renewable energy, computing, engineering, and modern toolmaking. According to Sir Keir, the creation of these colleges represents a key part of his proposed mission to boost the economy. In particular, a skills shake-up is needed to address industry concerns that workers are not being trained adequately in areas relevant to the local economy. The Labour Party is responding to calls from business leaders who have stated that they are struggling to find workers who meet their needs.
Meanwhile, Labour’s NHS appointments proposal has sparked interest, as the party stated it would involve “paying existing staff overtime” in order to increase capacity. Notably, the party’s plan recognizes that recruiting more staff for the NHS would be a long-term project, taking years to have any significant impact on waiting list numbers. The additional overtime would involve evening and weekend shifts, enabling procedures to take place. Patients would be able to choose to travel to another hospital nearby if they preferred to access treatment during these hours rather than wait any longer.
It has been suggested that the proposals would add around 40,000 extra appointments on a weekly basis, and that neighbouring hospitals would be able to pool their staff in order to create more shared waiting lists. Sir Keir’s announcement came as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed plans to recruit and train more doctors, nurses and support workers for the NHS via a new England workforce plan, set to commence imminently
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