Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has formally backed his shadow health secretary in plans to reform and effectively nationalise GP services. Wes Streeting’s proposals to make general practitioners salaried NHS employees have been criticised in some quarters of the medical profession.
But Sir Keir, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, said: “If we don’t get real about reform, the NHS will die”. The pledges have echoes of New Labour’s 1997 promises, when Tony Blair swept into power on the back of a manifesto vowing to slash NHS waiting times and focus the NHS more on patients.
Sir Keir used his article to outline reforms a future Labour government would introduce, including getting rid of “bureaucratic nonsense”, allowing patients to bypass GPs and refer themselves to specialists. He also backed phasing in a new system for GPs, turning family doctors into direct NHS employees.
