Starmer insists NHS doctors WILL sign up to his plan do more overtime

Keir Starmer insists NHS doctors WILL sign up to his plan do overtime in their evenings or at weekends – although he admits they’ll earn more in private work if they want extra shifts

Sir Keir Starmer today insisted NHS doctors would sign up to his plan to do overtime in order to bring down waiting lists – despite admitting they’d earn more cash doing private work if they want extra shifts.

The Labour leader has used his party’s conference in Liverpool to unveil plans to pump an extra £1.1billion into the health service to provide staff with overtime to work evening and weekend shifts.

The proposals – which Labour said would be funded by scrapping the non-dom tax status – are aimed at boosting the number of procedures that can be carried out in a bid to tackle the NHS backlogs.

Health unions gave a cautious welcome to the party’s plans, but they pointed out that the ‘vast majority’ of doctors and nurses already take on extra work.

And Sir Keir was this morning forced to admit that hospital staff could earn much more if they took on extra private shifts, instead of doing NHS overtime.

Sir Keir Starmer insisted NHS doctors would sign up to his plan to do overtime in order to bring down waiting lists – despite admitting they’d earn more cash doing private work if they want extra shifts

The Labour leader, pictured alongside his deputy Angela Rayner, has used his party’s conference in Liverpool to unveil plans to pump an extra £1.1billion into the health service to provide staff with overtime to work evening and weekend shifts

The proposals – which Labour said would be funded by scrapping the non-dom tax status – are aimed at boosting the number of procedures that can be carried out in a bid to tackle the NHS backlogs

The Labour leader said doctors ‘will probably get more (money) in the private sector’ but he believed they would do overtime for the NHS ‘because they want to bring down the waiting list as well’.

Sir Keir insisted that NHS staff ‘are up for this because they know that bringing down the waiting list will reduce the pressure on them in the long run’.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘There’s a huge strain on the health service.

‘They want to do this just as much as we do and it is desperately needed,’ he added.

‘We need growth in our economy, we need to raise living standards across the country.

‘We will never do that with the mess that this Government has made of the NHS.’

Around 7.7 million people in England are waiting for NHS hospital treatment following the Covid pandemic and disruptive health strikes.

Labour have claimed their plans would an extra two million appointments a year.

In an interview with the Mirror, Sir Keir said clearing the appointment backlog was ‘absolutely necessary for our NHS’.

‘I think everybody knows someone who’s on the NHS waiting list. And I’m certainly not immune from that,’ he said.

‘This is a period of high anxiety for individuals – huge personal discomfort in many cases.

 ‘And it’s also a major factor behind our failure on economic growth as there are too many people who aren’t at work because they haven’t had the operations that they need.

‘Since the Prime Minister said he was going to get the numbers down, they’ve just gone up. So we need a plan to fix this.’

Responding to Labour’s announcement, Professor Philip Banfield, BMA council chair, said: ‘The NHS has been mismanaged and underfunded for more than a decade now, so any extra investment into the workforce is not only welcome but critical.

‘It is important to remember that one of the key issues impacting doctors is that over the past 15 years they’ve seen a steep decline in their wages.

‘Reversing this decline and fully restoring doctors pay is bound to have a significant impact on the current waiting list because that is the only way to address the NHS’ recruitment and retention crisis.

‘The vast majority of doctors already take on extra work. For far too long, it has been our goodwill keeping the health service afloat.

‘Paying doctors properly for overtime is not only the right thing to do but would be more cost effective than using the private sector or making extracontractual payments.

‘While this move may very well incentivise further overtime it is only once doctors receive restoration of lost relative value, will we be in a position to look at the impact that this extra overtime funding may have on waiting lists.’

Royal College of Nursing chief nurse Professor Nicola Ranger said: ‘Too often the NHS runs on the goodwill of its staff.

‘Nursing staff work so much overtime that is never paid – staying behind an hour or two after 12-hour shifts to keep patients safe – so a change in this culture is needed. As part of their shift patterns, weekend work is routine for many.

‘Any Labour government would likely take office at a time of record unfilled nurse jobs, in excess of 40,000, and so the long-term answer is of course to have more staff overall.

‘When many nurses already work additional full days to make ends meet financially, extra capacity is urgently required.

‘Nursing staff must feel valued by fair pay and treatment – there is no other way to boost staffing levels and give patients the treatment they deserve.’

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