Sir Keir Starmer will launch his plan to offer millions more appointments across the NHS in a bid to reduce waiting times to 18 weeks over the next five years.
The Prime Minister will explain how greater access to community diagnostic centers (CDCs) will help deliver up to half a million more appointments, along with 14 new surgery centers and three existing centers expanded.
According to the government, up to one million appointments could be freed up by giving patients the option to forgo follow-up appointments currently booked by default.
Typically, the plan will involve a campaign to achieve two million additional appointments by the end of next year.
The aim of the reforms is that, by the end of March 2026, an additional 450,000 patients will be treated in 18 weeks.
Figures released by NHS England last month showed that at the end of October there were approximately 7.54 million treatments waiting to be carried out, the lowest figure since March 2024.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the last time the NHS met the target of 92% of patients receiving treatment within 18 weeks was in 2015.
The reforms for England will also see a NHS app review to give patients more options on where they choose to have their appointment and will also provide more details to the patient, including their results and wait times.
The first step in the digital overhaul will be completed by March 2025, when patients in more than 85% of acute trusts will be able to see details of their appointments through the NHS app, the government said.
They will also be able to contact their provider and receive updates, including how long they will likely have to wait for treatment.
In the effort to free up one million appointments, patients will have more options than non-essential follow-up appointments, while GPs will also receive funding to receive specialist advice from doctors before making any referrals.
Sir Keir is expected to say: “This Government promised change and that is what I fight every day to achieve.
“NHS delays have soared in recent years, leaving millions of patients languishing on waiting lists, often in pain or fear. Lives on hold. Unfulfilled potential.
“This elective reform plan will deliver on our promise to end delays. Millions more quotes. Greater options and convenience for patients. “Staff will once again be able to provide the standard of care they desperately want.”
The CDC will be open 12 hours a day and seven days a week whenever possible. Patients will be able to access a wider range of appointments at locations that are most convenient to them and can accelerate the pace of treatment.
The government believes its plan will help offer the equivalent of 40,000 additional appointments per week in its first year – which was one of Sir Keir’s six key promises.
Canceler Rachel Reeves pledged £22bn over the next two years to reduce NHS waiting times in its October budget, but some in the sector fear that labor shortages mean the prime minister’s ambitions will be difficult to achieve.
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There have been some concerns that giving patients the choice of where they receive treatment could put some hospitals in higher demand than others, but Health Secretary Wes Streeting said it was a “matter of principle.” ”.
“When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, I was inundated with many colleagues in parliament asking me who my surgeon was, whether I was going to the best place for treatment, whether I was exercising my right to choose on the NHS,” he said. .
“Now it turns out the NHS matched me with one of the best kidney cancer surgeons in the country, so I was lucky.
“But frankly, someone like my mother, who works as a cleaner, should have as much choice and power in the NHS as her son, the Health Secretary.”
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the government’s plan was an “ambitious plan”.
“The radical reforms in this plan will not only allow us to carry out millions more tests, appointments and operations, but also do things differently – increasing convenience and putting more power in the hands of patients, especially through the NHS app ”.
