The NHS is the UK’s greatest national asset. 

Rishi will always make sure that the NHS is there for everyone who needs it. The difficult truth is right now, too many people are waiting too long for life saving treatment, surgeries or consultations and are being forced to go private to get the care they need. 

As Prime Minister, Rishi will make bringing down the size of the NHS waiting list his number one public service priority. He will deliver a radical approach to restore the NHS to what it should be. Here's how. 

Establish a Backlogs Taskforce

We will establish a Backlogs Taskforce at the heart of Government. It will be made up of the best of the best, with independent leadership, to encourage innovation, spread best practice and tackle the NHS waiting lists.

This will follow the example of the Vaccine Taskforce which worked through Whitehall bureaucracy to deliver the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe.

Bring all waiting lists up to date

We will audit the NHS waiting list to get one single version of the truth, removing duplicates and errors so we understand the scale of the problem before we go about tackling it.

Everyone who has been waiting over 18 weeks will be contacted by their Trust within Rishi’s first 100 days as Prime Minister. 

Put patients in the driving seat

We will introduce a £10 fine for missed GP and hospital appointments. The NHS will always be free at the point of use, but not free at the point of misuse.

We will empower patients to book their own follow-up appointments, bringing to an end the needless practice of computers scheduling follow-ups for those who do not need them.

We will expand the use of the NHS app and NHS 111 as the first port of call for patients to help direct them to the support they need – whether that's a pharmacist, physio or a GP – to take the strain off of our NHS.

Get people a quicker expert diagnosis

We will help people to get quicker, expert diagnostics support by increasing the total number of Community Diagnostics Hubs to 200. We will put these in the heart of communities by repurposing some of the 58,000 vacant high street shops.

We will radically expand the use of new testing techniques. The Backlogs Taskforce will ask all hospital trusts to report back on what tests don’t need to be done in the hospital and expect at-home delivery plans by Christmas.

We will use the private sector, where it is cost effective to do so, to take advantage of the diagnostics equipment available outside of the NHS.

Deliver the surgeries people need

We will get more people the elective surgeries they have been waiting for by increasing the number of highly productive specialist hubs. These hubs can systematically undertake low complexity procedures like knee, hip and cataracts operations.

We will accelerate the use of virtual wards to monitor people in their own homes and free up beds in the NHS.

We will cut back the bureaucracy stopping the world’s brightest doctors and nurses in other countries from joining our NHS.

Do you support my plans for tackling the NHS backlog? Then take a look at my Ten Point Plan for Great Britain to rebuild our economy, keep Brexit safe, and defeat Labour.