Keir Starmer: Pledge of two million extra NHS appointments met

The government has met a key election pledge to deliver two million extra NHS appointments in England in its first year, the prime minister has said.

The target was achieved between July and November last year, when there were almost 2.2 million more elective care appointments compared to the same period in 2023, the government said.

That period was affected by doctor strikes, however, which would have suppressed the number of available appointments.

Sir Keir Starmer said the “milestone is a shot in the arm for our plan to get the NHS back on its feet and cut waiting times”, while Health Secretary Wes Streeting said there was still “a hell of a lot more to do”.

But Streeting denied the figure of two million more appointments was affected by the previous Conservative government’s policies.

“Look at the size of the waiting lists overall. It’s come down four months in a row. That’s progress, but there’s still a lot more to do,” he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

Delivering an extra two million NHS operations, procedures and appointments a year in England was a central Labour manifesto pledge – and was included in a list of six first steps it would take in office.

The additional appointments were delivered in part by extra evening and weekend working, the government said.

Elective care covers a broad range of planned, non-emergency services, from diagnostic tests and scans to outpatient appointments, surgeries and cancer treatment.

There were 31.3 million operations, appointments and tests between July and November 2024, compared to 29.1 million over the same period in 2023, during which there were over a dozen days of junior doctors strikes.

The figures for the year up to July 2025, a year on from the election, will be closely scrutinised to see if this trend and the pledge have been borne out.

Ministers said NHS England data showed the manifesto commitment had been meet seven months early.

Sir Keir said the government was “not complacent” and knows “the job isn’t done”, as he promised further reforms to deliver faster treatment.

He unveiled plans in January to tackle the NHS backlog, which is one of the government’s key missions.

The government has announced an extra £40m in funding for trusts who make the biggest improvements in cutting waiting lists, with the money available for hospitals from next year to spend on capital projects.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the NHS was “on the road to recovery” and there were now around 160,000 fewer patients on waiting lists than when Labour took office in July last year.

NHS England figures showed last week that the number of people on the waiting list dropped for the fourth consecutive month to its lowest since April 2023.

An estimated 6.24 million patients were waiting for 7.46 million treatments to be carried out at the end of December in England – down from 6.28 million patients needing 7.48 million treatments in November.

However, the latest figures show 73% of A&E patients were treated or assessed within four hours in England in January – well short of the 95% target and a key benchmark of A&E performance.

And the numbers of A&E patients enduring long waits went up in January, with nearly 160,000 waiting longer than four hours for a bed to be found after a decision to admit them – many on chairs or trolleys.

The government’s announcement on its election pledge comes as a report by the King’s Fund thinktank highlighted inefficiency in the NHS system in England.

It includes a poll of more than 1,600 people who had used the health service in the previous 12 months.

One in five of those surveyed said they received a letter for an appointment after the date it was supposed to take place.

However, nearly a quarter said they did not know who to contact while waiting for care.

Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Helen Morgan said: “Until the government gets a grip of social care, hospitals will remain overwhelmed, backlogged and it is the patients who will pay the price.”

She added: “Too many people have been tragically let down and left waiting in limbo.”

Streeting has previously defended the government’s timescale for reforming adult social care in England, with proposals on its long-term funding unlikely to be delivered before 2028.