NHS: Sir Keir Starmer vows Labour will prioritise children in waiting list crackdown

Hospital bosses will be ordered to prioritise children caught up in the NHS waiting list if Labour come into power, the party has said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that long waiting lists for children are “dangerous and damaging” for their long-term health, and promised to tackle the NHS backlog if his party won the next general election. The party said a Labour government would write to local health leaders – integrated care boards – to give them “strategic direction to prioritise children’s waiting lists”.

Figures released in November last year suggested that there were 180,000 waits for children’s treatment longer than 18 weeks, and 18,000 longer than a year. The party warned that long waits for youngsters can impair their mental and physical development at a critical time in their lives.

Labour has pledged to end waits of more than 18 weeks for patients.

Sir Keir said: "When children are waiting over a year for treatment, that is dangerous and damaging for their long-term health. Children waiting for huge proportions of their life for hospital treatment is heartbreaking, causes immense stress for their parents, presses pause on family life, and they need to end.

"The biggest casualty of the short term ‘sticking plaster’ politics of the last 14 years are our nation’s children. My Labour government will turn this trend around, and I will personally monitor the speed at which we do.

"My government’s mission-led way of working will deliver the change the NHS needs, with a drive from the heart of government to see children’s waits for treatment end."