Rebuilding the NHS will give working class communities the change they deserve
For 14 years, the Conservatives failed the NHS and failed the very people it was created to serve.
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For too long, those who needed care the most were left with the least. This goes against the core values the NHS was built on: that your health shouldn’t be determined by where you’re born or what you earn.
Labour’s new 10-Year Health Plan will end that injustice with real reforms and real investment to deliver real change. Billions of pounds will be diverted to more deprived areas to tackle health inequalities.
The Conservatives talked a big game about “levelling up” but left working-class communities behind. Rishi Sunak even boasted that he changed funding formulas to take money from what he called “deprived urban areas.”
The result was an NHS left on its knees.
Labour is taking a different path. Since the general election, we’ve already delivered 3 million extra NHS appointments earlier than we promised. Thousands more people are now being seen sooner for cancer treatment. Waiting times are coming down. The work to get the NHS back on its feet has begun.
The Labour Government’s new 10-Year Health Plan builds on that progress.
It will end the postcode lottery in care by directing investment to the areas with the greatest health needs. By reforming the system to bear down on wasteful spending, the NHS will stop spending £2.2 billion bailing out trusts with large deficits. Those savings can now be redirected to support working-class communities that are in the greatest need.
GP funding will also be reformed to ensure resources are allocated to the most disadvantaged areas. I know these changes will benefit some of the areas in my constituency that the Tories too often let down.
Alongside these reforms, Labour has already taken practical steps to improve care in the hardest-hit communities. The Government has sent top doctors to help hospitals in areas with lots of people out of work and long waiting lists.
Their mission is to help trusts speed up improvements in care for those affected by things like ill health and unemployment.
Labour’s 10-Year Health Plan is about rebuilding the NHS, but it’s also about rebuilding Britain. Through our Plan for Change, the Labour Government is giving working people the security they deserve and the renewal our country needs.
While the Conservatives refuse to apologise for the mess they left our country in and Reform fight amongst themselves, Labour is getting on with the job by delivering for the people and places that need it most.
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Andrew Pakes is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Peterborough.
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