Labour’s plans for NHS get sceptical welcome from health leaders

Health leaders have given a lukewarm welcome to the Labour Party’s newly unveiled policy plans for the NHS in England, saying that the intentions are laudable but overly ambitious and in need of crucial detail on their workability.

Labour’s leader, Keir Starmer, promised a new approach to healthcare including a focus on preventing ill health, reducing health inequalities, tackling the main causes of deaths and deteriorating waiting times, greater use of technology, and boosting care given closer to home.

Starmer made his speech at an ambulance station in Braintree, Essex, on 22 May. He said, “The NHS is not sustainable unless we make serious, deep, long term changes. That’s my politics. Reform for renewal. National missions for the common good. An NHS fit for …