Labour, Conservatives, Lib Dem, Reform and Green’s healthcare policies explained

The 2024 General Election is upon us and healthcare will be top of the priority list for millions of voters across the UK.

It’s been a turbulent few years for the health sector with ever-growing NHS waiting lists, a spike in A&E waiting times and medical workers striking to push for a pay rise.

With that in mind, one of the key issues for Britain’s political parties to address will be healthcare.

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Here is a breakdown of exactly what each party is promising in their manifesto policies for healthcare, should they come into power following the vote on July 4.

• Conservatives
• Labour Party
• Liberal Democrats
• Green Party
• Reform UK

Conservatives’ healthcare policies

• Recruit 92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors
• Deliver 40 new hospitals and build or modernise 250 GP surgeries
• Improve mental health support

The Conservatives have vowed to increase NHS spending above the rate of inflation every year if it wins the election in an attempt to tackle ongoing issues.

‘We are committed to accelerating the NHS’s recovery from the pandemic, delivering safe and effective services and ongoing improvements in waiting times for primary, elective, cancer and emergency care,’ the party’s manifesto said.

The Tories will focus efforts on putting 92,000 more nurses and 28,000 doctors on the frontline, as well as delivering on the promise of 40 new hospitals, investing in new facilities and training more staff in rural and coastal areas.

Efforts to ‘transform the NHS for patients and staff’ will also come in the way of a £3.4billion investment in new technology, it said, with a particular focus on making the NHS the ‘single front door for NHS services’.

Rishi Sunak’s party also wants to improve mental health support by doubling the amount of help available within schools and colleges by 2030. The Conservatives also want to increase the amount of talking therapy available by 50% to support those with anxiety, stress and depression.

Women’s health will also be ‘prioritised’ with a national strategy for maternal care introduced and additional funding delivered for maternal safety, as well as improving access to mental health services for new mums. 

Labour Party’s healthcare policies

• Cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments every week and return of the ‘family doctor’
• Double the number of cancer scanners
• Recruit 8,500 additional mental health staff to improve mental health support

Sir Keir Starmer said in the Labour manifesto that ‘we must rebuild our country’ and at the heart of that objective are ‘five national missions’. Among those is ensuring ‘our NHS is once again at the cutting edge of healthcare’, he said.

Labour lists one of its ‘first steps for change’ as ‘cutting NHS waiting times’. It plans to do so by providing 40,000 more appointments each week during evenings and weekends, with a promise that patients won’t have to wait longer than 18 weeks to see a specialist from the point of referral.

Similarly to the Conservatives, Labour plans to improve technology and transform the NHS by introducing new CT and MRI scanners, computers, using AI, and overhauling the NHS app to put patients ‘in control of their own health to better manage their medicine, appointments, and health needs’. 

Thousands of GPs will be trained to guarantee face-to-face appointments and ‘end the 8am scramble’.

Mental health is at the top of Labour’s priority list by recruiting 8,500 more workers to bring down waiting times and pave the way for earlier interventions for patients. New staff will also be specially trained to support people and reduce the number of lives lost to suicide.

Labour has also laid out a dentistry rescue plan and a new programme of reform to create a National Care Service to improve social care.

Action will be taken on public health including making it illegal to buy cigarettes, banning vapes from being branded or advertised, tackling childhood obesity, banning advertising of junk food to children and stopping the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s.

Again, similarly to their Tory counterparts, Labour will prioritise women’s health as part of its efforts to ‘reform’ the NHS.

Liberal Democrats’ healthcare policies

• Recruit 8,000 more GPs and give everyone the right to see a GP within seven days – or within 24 hours if it’s urgent
• Improve early access to mental health services
• Boost cancer survival rates

The Liberal Democrats claimed last month that more than half of Brits using private healthcare say they decided not to use the NHS because of the length of waiting lists.

And the party has made it its number one healthcare priority to significantly reduce waiting times for medical appointments.

The Lib Dem manifesto says: ‘With more than 100,000 staff vacancies in England alone, a crisis in staff retention, long waiting times, missed targets and poor outcomes, patient safety is being pushed into the danger zone.

‘We will strengthen patients’ rights, fix crumbling hospitals, recruit and retain a workforce for the future, invest in technology that improves outcomes and saves money, and restore the UK as a world leader in health research.’

It aims to go about fulfilling those promises by recruiting 8,000 more GPs in order to deliver on the policy that everyone will be able to see a doctor within seven days – or within 24 hours if it’s urgent.

Mental health will also be a priority with plans to improve access to support services, establishing mental health hubs and introducing regular check ups.

Ed Davey’s party also wants to guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care, ‘ending DIY dentistry and dental deserts’.

And finally, perhaps one if its most important policies is to boost cancer survival rates and introduce a guarantee for 100% of patients to start treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral.

Green Party’s healthcare policies

• Reduce waiting lists year-on-year and guarantee rapid access to a GP
• Increase funding for mental health support to cut waiting times for therapy
• Campaign to legalise assisted dying for people suffering from terminal disease to avoid unnecessary suffering

The Green Party has made it a priority to protect the NHS, prevent it from collapse and stop further privatisation.

Its manifesto says: ‘The Green Party is committed to a fully public, properly funded health and social care system, and to keeping the profit motive well away from the NHS.’

Green MPs will push for a year-on-year reduction in waiting lists, guaranteed rapid access to a GP – and on the same day if urgent, and boosting the pay of NHS staff, such as junior doctors, to help with staff retention. It will also make dentistry care more accessible.

Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay’s party says it wants to increase funding for mental health care to enable people to access therapy within 28 days, as well as ensuring trained and paid counsellors are at every school and sixth-form college.

There will also be tailored provision to ‘meet the needs of communities of colour, children and adolescents, older people and LGBTIQA+ communities’.

Among its most eye-opening policies is to support a change in the law to legalise assisted dying. This will be for people suffering from terminal disease who wish to avoid prolonged unnecessary suffering.

It also aims to end new cases of HIV by 2030.

Reform UK’s healthcare policies

• Reform NHS and healthcare to improve results and aim for zero waiting lists
• End doctor and nurse shortages
• Introduce private treatment for NHS patients who cannot see a GP within three days

One of Reform UK’s top five pledges says: ‘Imagine no NHS waiting lists.’ It shows that cutting down waiting lists for healthcare is one of its top priorities.

Nigel Farage’s party says the NHS and healthcare system needs ‘major urgent reforms to improve results and enjoy zero waiting lists’.

It aims to do so in a number of ways, but will first carry out ‘critical reforms’ in the first 100 days, such as ensuring all frontline NHS and social care staff pay zero basic rate tax for three years to try and end doctor and nurse shortages.

Reform UK will then provide NHS patients with a voucher for private treatment if they cannot see a GP within three days, a consultant within three weeks or have an operation within nine weeks. It says services will always be free at the point of use.

The party wants to charge patients who fail to attend medical appointments without notice.

It has also pledged to ‘save A&E’ by cutting waiting times with a campaign of ‘pharmacy first, GP second, A&E last’.

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