Meeting of the Parliament 14 June 2023
I will not take an intervention, thank you. Members need to listen to this. They need to live with the decisions that they make in that regard.
Like others, I was shocked and saddened to hear that more than 18,000 people had died on NHS waiting lists last year. If the trend continues, the figure will be more than 20,000 this year. That is tragic.
If that does anything, it should tell the cabinet secretary and the Government that more of the same simply will not do. We need a plan for reducing waiting lists that supports NHS staff by improving recruitment and retention; by opening up national treatment centres urgently, supported by a highly skilled workforce; and by delivering for patients through action, rather than making promises and failing to follow through. It has become clearer to people every day that this Government, while it is no stranger to a strategy, has a poor relationship with delivery. That must change.
The challenges that we face with waiting lists are 16 years in the making, and they have undoubtedly been worsened in recent years by existing problems. Despite that, however, the NHS workforce is lacking a funded and targeted investment plan. This Government is falling short on reducing waiting lists; it is time that it stepped up and provided a service to our NHS staff and patients.
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