Waiting times need to fall by millions, says Streeting

Health secretary hints at using private sector to help NHS

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Wes Streeting has said NHS waiting lists need to fall by millions before the next general election.

The health secretary vowed to return the health service to its “constitutional standards” by the end of Labour’s first term in office, allowing A&E patients to be seen within four hours and ensuring those referred for cancer treatments are treated within 62 days.

Pressed over when NHS waiting lists would fall back below prepandemic levels, Mr Streeting said he would “certainly like to see them come down faster”. “We’ve committed to return the NHS by the end of this parliament to the constitutional standards we expect,” he told Sky News. It would mean waiting lists falling by millions before the latest date for a general election to be held in 2029.

Asked how that could be achieved, Mr Streeting said: “To get to constitutional standards, NHS waiting lists will need to be millions lower by the end of this parliament.”

There are currently 7.6 million people on NHS waiting lists, compared with 4.6 million before the pandemic in February 2020.

Mr Streeting highlighted his decision to agree a deal with the British Medical Association to end the junior doctors’ strikes as “an essential ingredient of bringing waiting lists down”.