Labour: The Party of the NHS

• The National Health Service is the Labour Party’s greatest achievement. We created it, we
saved it, we value it and we will always support it.
• In 1997 the NHS was suffering from years of neglect and underfunding. With sustained
investment and reform, Labour turned it into a high-quality service for patients, at the heart of
which is a core value: care provided on the basis of need, not of ability to pay.
• Under the Tories, the NHS was neglected:
• Between 1979 and 1997, inpatient waiting lists went up by over 400,000.
• In 1997, 284,000 patients were waiting for over six months for their operations. In
1995, the Tories introduced a waiting time target of 18 months – and they failed to
meet it.
• In 1997, just 63% of people with suspected cancer were seen by a specialist within
two weeks of referral.
• In 1997, half the NHS estate was older than the NHS itself, with buildings dating from
before 1948.
• Labour brought enormous improvements to the NHS between 1997 and 2010, including:
• 89,000 more nurses and 44,000 more doctors in the NHS, helping to drive up
standards and drive down waits.
• Before 1997 it was not uncommon for patients to wait over 18 months for an
operation – by 2010 Labour guaranteed that nobody need wait more than 18 weeks
• Waiting lists fell by over 500,000 with waiting times at their lowest level since records
began.
• In 1997, 284 000 patients waited more than 6 months for an operation. By 2010 the
figure was almost zero.
• 3 million more operations carried out each year than in 1997.
• The premature mortality rate for cancer the lowest ever recorded, saving nearly 9,000
lives in 2006 compared to 1996.
• Premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases dropped by more than 40 per cent
since 1996, saving nearly 34,000 lives a year.
• The NHS delivered the largest hospital building programme in its history, with 118 new
hospital schemes opened and a further 18 under construction.
• Labour created new services to provide patients with greater convenience including
around 100 new walk-in centres and over 750 one-stop primary care centres.
• By 2010, over three quarters of GP practices offered extended opening hours for at
least one evening or weekend session a week.
• All prescriptions are now free for people being treated for cancer or the effects of
cancer, and teenage girls are offered a vaccination against cervical cancer.
• Labour delivered a guarantee of seeing a cancer specialist within two weeks if your GP
suspects you may have cancer, and guaranteed that whatever your condition, you
would not have to wait more than 18 weeks from GP referral to the start of hospital
treatment – and most waits were much shorter than this.