Sir Keir Starmer insisted the future “already looks better” for the NHS as he unveiled a decade-long plan banking on AI and technology to lift the NHS out of crisis.
Unveiling Labour’s long-awaited 10-year plan for the NHS, published on Thursday, the prime minister said he would make the health service the most AI-enabled in the world, vowing that the NHS App would become the front door to the health service by 2028.
Sir Keir added that 1,700 new GPs had already been recruited, alongside thousands of mental health workers and millions of extra appointments.
He acknowledged improvements were needed in the NHS but claimed the situation was better than when Labour first took over from the Conservatives a year ago - adding that he was confirmed Labour could meet its ambitions and have the public’s confidence to achieve a third term in government.
Launching the plan, Sir Keir was accompanied by Rachel Reeves, who was making her first appearance since she was seen crying in the Commons on Wednesday, and when asked about the chancellor, he said her decisions had meant “we can invest record amounts in the NHS”.
He said: “It’s all down to the foundation we laid this year, all down to the path of renewal that we chose, the decisions made by the chancellor, by Rachel Reeves, which mean we can invest record amounts in the NHS.”
He went on: “I’m not going to stand here and say everything is perfect now, we have a lot more work to do and we will do it.
“But let’s be under no illusions: because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for our NHS. And that is the story of this government in a nutshell.”
The new health plan, sets out how the NHS will move from analogue to digital, from treatment to prevention, and from hospital to more community care.
The “status quo of hospital by default will end” and by 2035, the intention is that the majority of outpatient care will happen outside of hospitals.
New neighbourhood health services will give people access to a full range of services, leaving hospitals to focus on the sickest.
New services will also include debt advice, employment support and stop smoking or obesity services – all of which affect people’s health.
But some experts have warned that the government’s vision does not go far enough and lacks the necessary detail.
Among the highlights, the plan sets out:
- By 2028, the NHS app “will be a full front door to the entire NHS” and act as a “doctor in my pocket” for patients.
- Patients will be able to use the app to choose their preferred provider
- People will have a single patient record combining their health records plus personalised information to help improve their health.
- Wearable technology will become the “standard in preventative, chronic and post-acute NHS treatment by 2035”. All NHS patients will have access to these technologies, which will be part of routine care. The NHS will provide devices for free in areas where health needs and deprivation are highest.
- New mental health emergency departments will be created so people do not end up in A&E. Over the next five years around 85 will be established – close to or inside half of major A&Es.
- Over time, hospitals will get less of the NHS budget as it is redirected to community care
- An end to the 8am scramble for GP appointments by training thousands more GPs and building online advice into the NHS app. AI will be used for notes and letters to free up GPs’ time.
- A new “moonshot to end the obesity epidemic”, which will include greater use of weight-loss jabs and restriction of junk food advertising targeted at children
- Hospital patients will not be booked in by default for follow-ups, with “patient-initiated follow-up a standard approach for all clinically appropriate pathways by 2026”.
- Patients to be given more say on whether the full payment for the costs of their care should be released to the provider.
- Priority given to UK medical graduates and an ambition to reduce international recruitment to less than 10% by 2035.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting also told NHS staff gathered at the event that Labour rejected the “pessimism” which says the “NHS is a burden, too expensive, inferior to the market”.
Mr Streeting was embraced by Ms Reeves as he came away from the podium. She said “good luck in Parliament” as he left to deliver a speech in the Commons.
When asked how confident he was that Labour would have public support for the third term needed to deliver promises in the 10-year plan, the PM said he was “very confident”, adding “because this government was brought into power that change.”
He said: “People desperately want to change, on so many levels, but one of the things that came through the electoral loud and clear is please change the NHS for the better. Because nobody wants the NHS, I used to say its knees, but it was on its face...When Labour was last in government, we left with the lowest waiting list and the highest satisfaction. That's where we need to get to.”
The government admitted that there will be fewer staff than projected in the NHS Long-term workforce plan, published in 2023, under the former government.
Thea Stein, chief executive for think tank the Nuffield Trust, said she did not agree with the “prophecy of extinction” in the report, which says the NHS is at an “existential brink”.
She added: “This plan contains a litany of initiatives and the belief that they will be the NHS’s saviour, with little detail on how the ailing health service is to deliver these changes.”
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said: “There are more than 150 pages of a vision of how things could be different in the NHS by 2035, but nowhere near enough detail about how it will be implemented.”
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