Promises, promises: what to make of Labour’s and the Tories’ health pledges

Waiting timesIn his keynote speech to his party’s conference in Liverpool on 10 October, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said that cutting waiting lists was the “biggest challenge” facing the NHS.1 He pledged that a Labour government would commit an annual £1.1bn to provide two million more hospital appointments a year to tackle the backlog, which in England now stands at 7.8 million people waiting for treatment. This would be funded by ending the non-domicile tax status that allows some of the richest people in the UK to avoid paying tax.It would rely on existing NHS staff, who would be paid overtime to work evening and weekend shifts. “We will get the NHS working round the clock. And we will pay staff properly to do it,” Starmer said. But the BMA said that although the move could incentivise some doctors to do further overtime it could stall unless their calls…
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