A leading think tank has castigated Labour's budget cuts NHS waiting lists by warning of the 'challenging' public finances the party will face if it comes to power.
Labor pledges to tackle NHS backlog and sir Keir Starmer today outlined his party's bid to eliminate a waiting list of more than 18 weeks within five years of taking office.
They promise 40,000 extra appointments, scans and operations per week, in the evenings and at weekends, and to use spare capacity in private hospitals.
Sir Keir has also claimed that NHS waiting lists will reach 10 million – up from the current 7.5 million – if the Tories remain in power.
Shadow Secretary of State for Health Wes Straating this morning urged voters not to “give the matches back to the arsonists” as he destroyed the matches Conservativeshealth record.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) ridiculed Labour's claim, saying it was “highly unlikely” waiting lists would reach 10 million.
They pointed to the fact that the NHS has already 'substantially increased treatment volumes' in the past year and that waiting lists have 'already started to fall'.
The think tank also warned that Labor would find it 'incredibly difficult' to increase healthcare spending due to its 'challenging budget situation'.
A leading think tank has slammed Labour's plan to cut NHS waiting lists by warning of the 'challenging' public finances the party will face if it comes to power
Labor is promising to tackle NHS backlogs and Sir Keir Starmer has set out his party's aim to eliminate waiting times of more than 18 weeks within five years of taking office.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting this morning urged voters not to 'give the matches back to the arsonists' as he blasted the Conservatives' record on health.
Sir Keir and Mr Streeting today set out Labour's plan to increase the number of appointments, scans and operations and double the number of scanners.
They also pledged to deliver the 'largest expansion of the NHS workforce in history' and oversee reforms to 'get more out of services for what we put into them'.
Labor claims the extra appointments and scanners will cost £1.3 billion and will be paid for by tackling tax evaders and closing tax loopholes.
Speaking on Times Radio this morning, Mr Streeting said: 'What really matters is the waiting time because that is the clinically driven target, because when you have a condition like cancer we know that time matters, and we know that me too, and from my own experience as a cancer survivor.
“But even if you wait for things like orthopedics, hip and knee replacements, if you wait longer than 18 weeks, it will have serious consequences for your quality of life.”
Mr Streeting pointed to the last Labor government's 'track record' of improving NHS performance, adding: 'More importantly, we have the plan.
'I urge people not to give the matches back to the arsonists by electing the Conservatives to an unprecedented fifth term, because the NHS is catastrophic.'
He also said Labor is “more willing” to reduce waiting lists than when they entered government in 1997.
In a series of TV and radio interviews, Streeting promised that Labor would use AI scanners and the private sector to cut waiting lists.
But he warned that a Labor government would not be able to grant a full pay rise to trainee doctors 'on day one'.
He told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I really want to be upfront with junior doctors on this side of the election – the 35 per cent pay claim they've put in, I just can't afford that on day one. of a Labor government.
'We will have to work together and negotiate on pay and recognize that, as was the case with the last Labor government which inherited a similar mess, getting fair pay is a journey and not an event, and I am prepared to negotiate about pay and the wider conditions under which trainee doctors work.'
But responding to Labour's announcement, Max Warner, a research economist at the IFS, said: 'Labour's plan to tackle the NHS backlog is a serious sign of ambition: eliminating waiting times of more than 18 weeks within five years would represent a major improvement in NHS performance.
'Previous Labor governments have made significant reductions in waiting times, but these have been accompanied by large increases in healthcare spending – increases of more than 7 percent per year in real terms.
“The challenging budget situation facing the next administration will make it incredibly difficult to increase health care spending at a similar pace and will make delivering on this promise much more difficult.
'The claim that the NHS waiting list will reach 10 million under a future Conservative government rests on the very strong assumption that future NHS performance will be the same as past NHS performance.
'In reality, the NHS has significantly increased treatment volumes over the past year and the waiting list has already started to fall.
'Even in a world where treatment volumes are growing at a slower pace than set out in the NHS workforce plan, our modeling suggests that the waiting list is likely to decline slowly over the coming years, or at worst remain flat.
“In other words, whichever party forms the next government, it is highly unlikely that waiting lists will reach 10 million.”
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins criticized the plans as “more 'copy and paste' politics from Labour”, as she highlighted the Tories' long-term workforce plan and £3.4 billion plan to boost NHS technology upgrade.