CAMPAIGNERS urged Labour to bring an end to private contracts and outsourcing as NHS waiting lists increased for the third month in a row today.
An estimated 7.62 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of June in England, up from 7.60 million treatments at the end of May.
The number of people waiting over 65 weeks for their appointment also rose to 58,024 in June from 55,955 in the previous month.
The government is aiming to end waits of more than 65 weeks by September 2024, and waits of more than a year by next March.
Commenting on the waiting list figures, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that 14 years of Tory neglect had left the NHS “broken” and vowed to work “night and day to get the NHS back on its feet.”
Mr Streeting, who has accepted at least £178,000 from corporate donors with private healthcare links in the past four years, previously announced plans to use “spare capacity in the private sector” to reduce the waiting lists.
Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr Tony O’Sullivan said: “If Labour continues Tory policy investing in the private sector, the problems inherited from previous governments will escalate.
“The ‘spare’ private capacity promised by Streeting [sees] NHS staff and funding diverted to private clinics and theatres.
“It is not extra capacity but perpetuates a weaker NHS. Labour must invest to raise NHS core capacity and NHS staff.”
Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at public ownership campaign group We Own It, said: “So-called ‘spare private-sector capacity’ is not the quick fix Streeting seemed to believe it to be on the campaign trail.
“The government has a simple choice now.
“Will they continue the failed approach of the last government of more outsourcing, which is costing our NHS £10 million a week going out in profits, or will they begin gradually ending outsourcing and reinstating the NHS to a public service that puts patients before profits?
“The government could build one operating theatre each week with the money leaving in profits.
“The 10-year plan for the NHS the government is working on will be a test of which direction they want to go in.”
EveryDoctor chief executive Dr Julia Patterson said: “With a new government, we have an opportunity to turn around the bleak situation in the NHS, and rebuild the service. But this will only happen if Keir Starmer commits to significant investment in the service.
“Their plans so far are inadequate, and meanwhile growing numbers of patients are being profoundly failed. We need immediate action from politicians to safeguard lives.”
