00:00The waiting lists that people are languishing on that we inherited when we came into office
00:04are a key part of what we want to get rid of in our term in office. So today the Prime
00:09Minister will be announcing the delivery plan for that, many more appointments in the system
00:15but also making sure that patients have got more power in the system to book their own
00:19appointments, to choose something that's much more convenient to them. So more capacity
00:24and more power for patients to make sure we get those waiting lists down to 18 weeks,
00:28over 90% of people waiting for only 18 weeks as opposed to the 18 months they're currently
00:33waiting. So we have committed in our manifesto to more appointments and making sure that
00:40we reduce those waiting lists. What we're announcing today is how we're going to do
00:43that, the delivery of doing that, because people sometimes are sceptical about whether
00:47we can, so we're setting out very clear ambitious targets, more appointments in the system but
00:53also telling people and making sure that the app particularly works better for people so
00:58that people can book their own appointments at more convenient locations but also more
01:03of these surgical hubs, more community diagnostic centres, based sometimes in fact shopping
01:08centres that are local to you. So it's about how we deliver that and our firm promise to
01:13people that they will wait no more than 18 weeks by the end of this Parliament, so very
01:19much on the delivery of our promise. I think most of the professional groups, the doctors
01:23and nurses and their leaders all know that something big has to happen, there has to
01:28be some big changes, that the system isn't working at the moment. Lord Darsey's report
01:33made that very clear, they're working under terrible circumstances with really poor equipment
01:38and ability to support people, so most leaders have welcomed that. They are worried about
01:43how it actually happens, they know they're under current pressure, particularly in winter,
01:47but we are setting out, with NHS England, working closely with local systems about how
01:53we deliver that in each particular region. Currently staff aren't working very efficiently,
01:58we want to make them work more efficiently, we want to incentivise people to work in some
02:02of these new centres, it's a more flexible way of working, that suits different people,
02:06so there'll be different solutions in different parts of the country. So staff are working
02:10really hard, but in Lord Darsey's report he made clear they're doing lots of workarounds
02:14to make things better, so for example I've seen really skilled nurses doing really skilled
02:19care, then spending half an hour trying to print out a letter to give to a patient to
02:23take away with them. Nurses shouldn't be doing that in clinics, in outpatients, they should
02:29perhaps not need a letter, that could be sent to someone on their phone. Most people do
02:34use the phone, use their apps for all sorts of things, so that's inefficiency of the staff
02:40because of the system they're working in, and it's totally demoralising for them and
02:44it's bad for patients and we need to get rid of it.
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