The Prime Minister will announce plans for a new virtual hospital to create millions of new appointments and help shorten waiting lists, as he will declare that a ‘new world is coming’.
Keir Starmer will unveil plans for a new ‘online hospital’ in a bid to crack down on long waiting lists.
Will the Prime Minister be able to save the NHS with this digital service?
At the Labour conference in Liverpool, Starmer will set out plans for NHS Online, which will link patients with specialist doctors through the NHS App.
The reshaped system, which will be introduced in 2027, will reportedly deliver 8.5 million appointments in the first three years, cutting waiting lists for treatment.
According to NHS sources, these could include digestive conditions, ophthalmology and gynaecology. Starmer will declare a “new world is coming” during Tuesday’s speech, adding: “In decades to come, I want people to look back on this moment as the moment we renewed the NHS for a new world.”
The digital service will see patients get referred for scans and tests, receive clinical advice, and access prescriptions without stepping outside.
High-priority treatments with long waiting lists will be targeted first, with the scheme extended to more conditions over time.
Patients will still be able to see a doctor at their local hospital if they prefer, but the new service is designed to shorten waits for in-person appointments by diverting those who want to use the app from the queue.
The PM will tell Labour’s annual conference: “The responsibility of this party is not just to celebrate the NHS, it’s to make it better.
“A new chapter in the story of our NHS, harnessing the future, patients in control. Waiting times cut for every single person in this country. That’s national renewal, that’s a Britain built for all.”
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Health Secretary Wes Streeting voiced his excitement for the new online hospital, hailing that it has “been proven to work” in some hospitals. He said: “It’s basically about modernising the NHS, helping it to move with the times.”
NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said the scheme would “deliver millions more appointments by the end of the decade, offering a real alternative for patients and more control over their own care”. It will build on innovations, such as a virtual triage system in Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which sped up referrals for specialist care as well as discharges from hospital.
It comes after Labour highlighted digital innovation as one of the fundamental themes in the 10-year NHS plan, which was published in July.
The plans were described as an “interesting experiment” by Dr Becks Fisher from the Nuffield Trust think tank, but she added: “At this stage, detail is largely lacking.
“And there are some difficult questions looming about implementation. Where will the doctors and nurses for this service be taken from? And how will they pass patients who need care from digital to physical services?”
So the shady spider, Starmer, is spinning his evil web once more!
There will be inadequate treatment for many patients as a result of the numerous flaws in this system, resulting in many people falling through the cracks.
There is a plan here, and it’s not for the good of your health.
It’s all about control. Our government want to keep us indoors, so that they can keep us all in one place – to control us!
I’m all for innovation and technology, but not to the point where it will make our NHS worse or our lives worse.
They are going to create a digital service, but they haven’t demonstrated how it will work, and they said that we will be able to access prescriptions without stepping outside. We all know that you physically have to get your prescriptions from the chemist – what is somebody going to bring us our medication, or are we going to now have virtual medication instead? Perhaps they will dispatch it by carrier pigeon.
People need to see a doctor face-to-face; it’s the only answer. Mark my words, in about 30 years or less, it will all be done by AI – there will be no doctors that are actually human.
Telephone consultation may help with a migraine or headache, but not with a tumour!
How can they possibly diagnose people over the internet? It’s bonkers, and what about the elderly, homeless, and those who are unable to use technology?
Starmer saving the NHS with online appointments! The only thing he’s saving is his own bacon. Um, tasty, not so tasty if it ended up on your plate. And it won’t be so tasty when people start ending up in the morgue because online consultation got it all wrong.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 