Labor is promising 300,000 extra NHS appointments in London if elected

Londoners could have access to around 300,000 extra NHS appointments, scans and operations a year under a Labor government the party has said, local democracy reporter Noah Vickers reports.

Londoners could have access to around 300,000 extra NHS appointments, scans and operations a year under a Labor government, the party said.

The commitment is derived from Labour’s wider commitment to deliver an extra 40,000 appointments a week in England – equivalent to around 2,080,000 a year.

It means London would receive around 14% of these appointments, scans and operations – roughly equivalent to the size of its population.

Labor has also promised to double the number of scanners in hospitals, with the aim of diagnosing patients earlier. The party estimates the extra appointments and scanners would cost £1.3bn and proposes to pay for them by “cracking down on tax avoidance and closing non-dom tax loopholes”.

But the Tories say Labour’s plans would take the country “back to square one”, pointing to the state of the NHS in Wales, where Labor is in charge of the health system.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “For over 14 years the Tories have taken the golden legacy left by the last Labor government and destroyed it. Their neglect, incompetence and underinvestment in the NHS has left millions waiting in pain and agony.

“Rishi Sunak has given up on the NHS. He has no plan to reverse this crisis, which he blames on doctors and nurses instead of taking any responsibility himself. Patients deserve solutions, not scapegoats.”

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He added: “If the Tories have another five years then nothing will change, the NHS crisis will worsen and waiting lists will reach 10 million. The longer the Conservatives are in charge, the longer patients will have to wait.

“We will deliver an extra 40,000 appointments a week on evenings and weekends, the first step in our mission to break the Tory backlog. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.”

A Conservative spokesman said Rishi Sunak’s government was “investing record funds in the NHS, recruiting more doctors and nurses than ever before and delivering the biggest expansion of the NHS workforce in its history.

“Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has no plans to reduce waiting lists and the BMA is warning that the pension tax on working doctors will force experienced doctors to leave the NHS. Just look at Wales to see what happens when Labor is in power – NHS waiting lists have just hit their highest level on record, with patients in Wales waiting almost seven weeks longer than in England, delaying people to get the healthcare they need and putting patients at risk. This is exactly what they would do in England, taking us back to square one.

“Only Rishi Sunak and the Tories are offering a clear plan with bold action to secure the future of the NHS.”

The mention “Occupational doctors’ pension levy” is a reference to the party’s plan to restore the pension for life.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt abolished the £1,073,100 cap last year, but his Labor counterpart Rachel Reeves said she would reverse the move – calling it a “tax cut for the wealthiest in society”.

Labor insisted the cap would be reinstated in a “fair and reasonable way” that would ensure public service leaders, including doctors, were kept.

The general election will take place on Thursday, July 4.

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