Labour Says It Will Pay Doctors and Nurses to Work Overtime to Cut NHS Waiting Lists

Labour plans to tackle the ever-growing NHS waiting lists by paying doctors and nurses to work overtime, the party said as it kicked off its annual conference in Liverpool.

In a press release published on Sunday, Labour vowed to pump an extra £1.1 billion of overtime pay in a bid to provide “an extra 2 million operations, scans, and appointments in the first year” if it wins in the next general election.

It comes as a record 7.68 million people were waiting for hospital appointments at the end of July.

Speaking to broadcasters on Sunday morning, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer admitted that NHS staff may earn more in the private sector but insisted they will be willing to work overtime instead because “bringing down the waiting list will reduce the pressure on them in the long run.”

The NHS has been struggling to deal with its waiting lists for well over a decade amid growing demand that comes with an aging population and new treatment methods. The Conservative government has also been routinely blamed for budget cuts to the health service.

The backlogs soared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the NHS had begun to catch up after the lockdowns, back-to-back strikes by doctors, nurses, ambulance staff, and other NHS workers for months on end have added more to the pile.

NHS consultants and junior doctors are still in dispute with the government over pay, although the Conservative government has insisted it won’t sweeten the offer again.

The NHS has already been allowing patients who are willing to travel to get appointments from trusts in other areas, and Labour said its plan would enable patients to travel for an appointment on an evening or weekend as well.

Speaking to Sky News’s “Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips” programme, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting denied that the plan is “wishful thinking.”

Asked about his thoughts on the fact that many NHS staff already felt burned out and exhausted, Mr. Streeting offered the reassurance that staff won’t be forced to work overtime.

“This is voluntary. Staff will be given the choice to opt in,” he said.

“The second reassurance is that the reason we’ve adopted this approach is because it’s an approach that has already been shown to be working in some London hospitals,” he added.

“It’s a credible plan, it’s workable. It will create two million more appointments a year, and that will be game-changing in terms of getting waiting lists down and busting the Tory backlog,” he said.

NHS Consultants often do private work on their own time.

Sir Keir told the BBC’s “Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg” programme that doctors “will probably get more in the private sector.”

Asked why they would do NHS work instead, he said: “Because they want to bring down the waiting list as well.

NHS staff will be up for this because they know that bringing down the waiting list will reduce the pressure on them in the long run,” he said.

“They want to do this just as much as we do, and it is desperately needed.”

Responding to Labour’s plan, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) chief nurse Nicola Ranger said nurses have already been working overtime without getting paid.

“Too often, the NHS runs on the goodwill of its staff,” Ms. Ranger said.

“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,” she added.

Noting that there are more than 40,000 unfilled nursing jobs in England, Ms. Ranger said, “The long-term answer is, of course, to have more staff overall.”

Unions: Doctors and Nurses Already Work Overtime

RCN members’ dispute with the government over pay has been resolved earlier this year. The British Medical Association (BMA), which is still organising strikes for doctors, also said doctors are already working overtime and called on the government to pay them “properly.”

“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, BMA council chairman Professor Philip Banfield said.

“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 [that we will] be in a position to look at the impact that this extra overtime funding may have on waiting lists.”

Last month, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, who’s eyeing the key to No. 11, said she will stick to a “non-negotiable” fiscal rule of “never spend[ing] what we cannot afford.”