Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, and Wes Streeting, Shadow Health Secretary, speak with staff during a visit to Bassetlaw Hospital, as Labour sets out it’s plan to deliver 40,000 extra NHS appointments each week. Picture date: Saturday June 15, 2024.

Public health worker

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has admitted that Labour can’t sell its latest budget as a budget to save the NHS – it’s not enough to make a transformative difference. Instead of offering sufficient funding to solve the crisis, Streeting plans to increase the pressure on staff by introducing name-and-shame league tables. NHS Trusts will be ranked based on a range of indicators, and poor performance will result in NHS managers being sacked.

Pitting NHS Trusts against each other like this will act to divide Trusts and discourage collaboration. Furthermore, health leaders have warned that this could demoralise staff. The NHS currently has 111,000 unfilled posts and 29% of NHS staff state they often think about leaving. Additionally, the number of people who accepted an offer to study nursing at university has fallen by 21% in the UK since 2021. The Royal College of Nursing has warned that increases in tuition fees could further reduce this number. NHS staff are being squeezed from every side!

After 14 years of austerity, NHS workers will have rejoiced when the Tories were finally kicked out of government. However, any excitement they had for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party will have been short-lived. The proposed 3.4% funding increase is indeed more than the 2.8% we’ve seen under the last two Tory governments. However, this only returns yearly spending increases to below the ‘historical norm’, and doesn’t cover the cost of the expanding workforce.

The proposed budget does nothing to undo the damage done by years of Tory underfunding. The NHS maintenance backlog currently stands at £13.8 billion. In August, 7.6 million people were waiting for planned treatment, and 280,000 have been waiting over a year for an operation, scan or appointment. As our population gets older and sicker, maintaining the status quo is not enough. Radical change is needed to significantly improve our NHS.

Instead of trying to ‘shake the magic productivity tree’, the NHS needs massive investment to recruit and retain staff, expand services, and reduce waiting times. This funding, however, must not find its way into the pockets of private companies looking to squeeze profit out of the sick. All privatisation of the NHS must be reversed, and other critical services such as dentistry and social care should be nationalised and brought under democratic working class control. Only a socialist healthcare system run by patients and workers can provide the service we desperately need.