Rishi Sunak was confronted today by a man who begged him to cut NHS waiting times to help his grandmother.
Jake Robinson, 23, from Rochester, Kent, said his gran has to book GP appointments six weeks in advance because her surgery is so busy.
During a Q&A with workers at an Ikea warehouse in Dartford, Kent, Mr Robinson asked the PM: “Do you have any ideas on how to help the NHS at the moment?"
He said his family members were facing problems “left, right and centre” accessing NHS care.
“What is going on? Any ideas?”, he added.
Mr Sunak enthusiastically answered: “Yes, lots.”
The PM said cutting waiting lists is one of his five priorities because they're too big and people are waiting too long.
“I do a meeting almost every week with the CEO of the NHS and the team and we've got a really, really good plan in place to bring all those numbers down,” he said.
“It means more doctors, more nurses, more ambulances, and then being a bit clever about how we do things because I know you will love the NHS and you want me to spend lots of money on it. We're doing that.
“But I think all of you probably also think, are we making sure that we spend that money as efficiently as we can? Is every pound of it being used really well?”
Speaking to the Mirror afterwards, Mr Robinson said: “When she’s ill, she has to ring the doctor six weeks in advance.
“It annoys me. I’m just like, ‘oh come on.’ We’re in the UK, for crying out loud. There should be better experiences.
“It was good when [the PM] said money should be better spent. In my opinion, it all depends on the people who get the money.
"Like, are they spending in the right place? Are they putting it in the right direction?”
NHS waiting lists increased to a record 7.42million this month, despite repeated Tory pledges to reduce it.
The latest NHS England data shows the appointments backlog increased by 83,000 last month to the highest since records began in 2007.
Mr Sunak has made cutting waiting lists one of his priorities for 2023, pledging in January that "lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly".
Some 11,477 people are estimated to have been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of April. This is up from 10,737 at the end of March.
The Government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April of this year.
The latest figures show an estimated 371,111 people in England had been waiting more than a year to start routine hospital treatment at the end of April.
This is up from 359,798 at the end of March.
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