INVESTMENT in NHS staff will make more of a difference to waiting lists than app upgrades, campaigners warned today. 

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that the government is placing a “heavy emphasis on reform, not just investment” in the NHS ahead of its elective reform plan, due to be announced tomorrow.

Under the plans, the NHS app, which can already be used to book and manage appointments, will be altered so that patients who need non-emergency elective treatment can book appointments with different providers, including those in the private sector.

Patients will also be able to book tests and follow-up appointments including remote consultations or surgery.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Streeting claimed the move will shift the NHS “into the digital age” and help cut waiting times “from 18 months to 18 weeks.”

But the British Medical Association warned that the upgrade “won’t make serious inroads into waiting lists without significant improvements to other parts of our healthcare system.”

BMA chairman Phil Banfield said that driven by “arbitrary targets,” the plan misses the “crucial point” of needing to treat the patients most in need first.

“Waiting times are inherently linked to both demand and capacity in healthcare services and workforce,” he added.

Unison’s head of health Helga Pile underlined that staff are essential for turning around the service.

“That’s why getting decisions right on pay are crucial in retaining and recruiting skilled workers,” she said.

“Everyone wants to improve patient care, make the health service more efficient and reduce delays. But without the staff, the NHS will never get the help it needs.”

Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr Tony O’Sullivan said: “So many of these ‘reforms’ are already in existence and if staff are supported to extend them safely, the NHS will welcome better care and effective communication with patients.

“But these measures alone will not be transformational. 

“It is having enough NHS community and hospital staff, from cleaners and admin to nurses, therapists, GPs and consultants, that will solve these dangerous waiting lists.”

He warned that over-reliance on apps and AI “carries the risk of heightening health inequalities by ignoring the very real barriers patients face of communication and language, their access to and facility with IT and gadgets, problems of hearing and vision, mental health, learning disabilities, and poverty.”