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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the NHS must reform in order to survive. <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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He told the BBC the NHS should always be free at the point of use but there was also a role for the private sector, including to help clear waiting lists. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He also proposed allowing patients to make self-referrals for conditions like back pain to cut bureaucracy. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Senior doctors have warned the NHS is in crisis, with services under huge pressure this winter. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Asked if any reforms for the health service were off the table, Sir Keir told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “No, we want to look at all sorts of reform.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“The reason I want to reform the health service is because I want to preserve it. I think if we don’t reform the health service we will be in managed decline,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“It will always have to be free at the point of use, it of course should be a public service. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use effectively the private sector as well.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n- Laura Kuenssberg: Is Keir Starmer a prime minister in waiting? <\/li>\n
- Starmer says 16 is too young to change legal gender<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sir Keir said the NHS was facing “the worst crisis we’ve ever seen”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With more than seven million people waiting for NHS treatment in England, he said a Labour government would make more use of the private sector to help clear waiting lists. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Labour leader also criticised the “bureaucracy” in some parts of the health service, adding: “Anybody who’s been on the 8 o’clock call trying to get a GP appointment knows exactly what I’m talking about.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He said he wanted to “lift the burden” on the NHS by considering allowing patients to self-refer to specialists for some conditions like back pain. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The interview came after the Labour leader set out his vision for the health service in an article for the Sunday Telegraph. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He argued the idea the NHS is still the envy of the world is “plainly wrong” and that the situation for patients was “intolerable and dangerous”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sir Keir also said his party would double the number of graduating doctors and district nurses, increase training placements for nurses and midwives, and gradually turn family doctors into direct employees of the health service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“It’s time for us to think about a new, sustainable system, one that allows GPs to focus on caring for patients rather than the admin that comes with effectively running a small business,” he wrote. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Department of Health and Social Care source said Labour’s plan for GP services was “an expensive top-down reorganisation” and that it was “uncosted and unfunded”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“We are growing the GP workforce, have a record number of doctors in training and we have recruited over 21,000 additional staff into general practice,” the source said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n