The Government will target areas with the ‘highest numbers of people off work sick’ for a new initiative to get hospitals running like a ‘Formula 1 pit stop’, according to health secretary Wes Streeting.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference, Mr Streeting announced plans for ‘crack teams of top clinicians’ to go into hospitals and roll out reforms in operating theatres.
The new ways of working have been developed by surgeons and can deliver ‘up to four times more operations than normal’, according to Labour.
This model is based on operating theatres at Guys and St Thomas’ in London, which Labour said ‘run like a Formula 1 pit stop to cut time between procedures’.
Mr Streeting said the initial focus on 20 hospital trusts in areas with the ‘biggest rates of economic inactivity’ is based on the Government’s commitment to ‘moving the dial’ on its ‘growth mission’.
In January, a census report found that over half of the UK surgical workforce faced problems accessing theatres, which was contributing to long waiting times for hospital treatment and excessive workloads.
And the following month, the Times Health Commission called for high-intensity theatre lists to be launched once a month in 50 hospitals to get through a week’s worth of planned operations in a day and create seven-day surgical hubs.
‘Free at the point of use‘
During his Labour Party conference speech, the health secretary also promised to maintain the NHS as a service which is free at the point of use, claiming that the ‘crisis’ left by the Conservatives means that ‘seven in 10 people now expect charges for NHS care to be introduced’.
‘I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: over my dead body. We will always defend our NHS as a public service free at the point of use, so that whenever you fall ill, you never have to worry about the bill,’ Mr Streeting told the conference.
As well as the focus on areas of high ‘economic activity’, the health secretary also indicated that Government initiatives will be targeted at ‘disadvantaged areas’.
He argued that patient ‘choice’ should not ‘just be the preserve of the wealthy’, and that ‘power should be ‘in the hands of the many’.
‘So, starting in the most disadvantaged areas, we will ensure patients’ right to choose where they are treated, and we will build up local health services so it’s a genuine choice,’ Mr Streeting added.
Earlier this month, ahead of the publication of the Darzi review, the health secretary set out three ‘strategic shifts’ for the NHS’ which included moving care from ‘hospital to community’.
A version of this article was originally published by our sister publication Pulse.
