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Sir Keir Starmer has declared that “the future already looks better for the NHS” as he unveiled the government’s 10-year plan for the health service.
Speaking at the Sir Ludwig Guttmann Health Centre in east London, surrounded by NHS staff, the prime minister explained that his government will fix the health service by moving care into the community, digitising the NHS, and focusing on sickness prevention.
The aim is to shift care away from under-pressure medical facilities and closer to people’s homes, while taking measures to prevent people needing treatment in the first place.
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Core elements of his plan include a hugely enhanced NHS app to give patients more control over their care and access to more data, new neighbourhood health centres open six days a week and at least 12 hours a day, and new laws on food and alcohol to prevent ill health.
Sir Keir said before the general election a year ago there were record waiting lists for treatment, patient satisfaction was at the lowest level ever, and thousands have been forced to wait more than six hours in A&E, despite the efforts of NHS staff.
He argued that the government had already done much to start turning things around, pointing to new NHS staff recruited in mental health and general practice, 170 diagnostic centres now open, new surgical hubs, mental health units, ambulance sites, and “record investment right across the system”.
But he added: “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.
“Because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for the NHS.”
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