What Could a Labour Government Mean for NHS Health Tech Suppliers?
Navigating Potential Policy Shifts and Market Opportunities in the Health Tech Sector
With Labour having been confirmed to have won the 2024 General Election in a landslide victory, winning over 400 seats, we here at Govnet have decided to take a deeper look at what this could mean for healthcare technology providers who currently sell into or are looking to sell into the NHS.
Within this introductory preview piece, we will look at some of the key questions you may have:
What does the Labour manifesto say about the NHS?
Who is the new Secretary of State for Health?
What will a Labour Government mean for NHS funding?
What could the impact be for you as, healthcare technology suppliers?
Outlining the Key Points of The Labour Manifesto on the NHS
Waiting Times and Modernising the NHS
‘A system reliant on pagers and fax machines is not fit for this decade let alone the next. We will harness the power of technologies like AI to transform the speed and accuracy of diagnostic services, saving potentially thousands of lives.’
Cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments every week.
During the election campaign, Kier Starmer and Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary promised that the backlog of about 3.2 people waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment will be cleared within five years.
Double the number of cancer scanners
Introduction of a new ‘Fit For the Future’ fund to double the number of CT and MRI scanners, allowing the NHS to catch cancer and other conditions earlier
Committed to delivering the New Hospitals Programme
Develop an NHS innovation and adoption strategy in England including a plan for procurement, giving a clearer route to get products into the NHS coupled with reformed incentive structures to drive innovation and faster regulatory approval for new technology and medicines
Maximise the UK’s potential to lead the world in clinical trials. Aims to make the process more efficient and accessible, by speeding up recruitment and giving more people a chance to participate through the NHS app
Put Britain at the forefront of transforming treatment for dementia
Digitalisation of the Red Book record of children’s health, improving support for new families. Labour will also enable vaccinations for babies and children as part of health visits
Primary and Community Care
Commitment to move to a more ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’, with more care delivered in local communities to spot problems earlier
Train thousands more GPs, guarantee a face-to-face appointment for all those who want one and deliver a modern appointment booking system to end the 8am scramble.
Return of the family doctor that will see GPs incentivised to see the same patient
Creation of a Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service that will ‘grant more pharmacists independent prescribing rights where clinically appropriate’
Allow opticians to make direct referrals to specialist services or tests
Expansion of self-referral routes
Trial Neighbourhood Health Centres, with existing services such as family doctors, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists, palliative care, and mental health specialists under one roof.
Social Care
Creation of a ‘National Care Service’ that will be underpinned by a ‘Home first’ approach
Develop local partnership working between the NHS and social care on hospital discharge
Establish a fair pay agreement in Adult Social Care
Guarantee the rights of those in residential care to be able to see their families
Ongoing commitment to build a consensus around the longer-term reform required to create a ‘sustainable National Care Service’
Public Health
‘Prevention will always be better, and cheaper, than a cure. So, we must take preventative public health measures to tackle the biggest killers and support people to live longer, healthier lives.’
Ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes and ensure all hospitals integrate ‘opt-out’ smoking cessation interventions into routine care
Ban vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine
Banning advertising junk food to children along with the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s.
Reform gambling regulation, strengthening protections. We will continue to work with the industry on how to ensure responsible gambling
Mental Health
‘Indeed, Britain is currently suffering from a mental health epidemic that is paralysing lives, particularly those of children and young people. This is a tragedy – arguably nothing says more about the state of a nation than the wellbeing of its children.’
Reform the NHS to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health.
8,500 additional mental health staff
Introduce new Young Futures hubs that will provide open access mental health services for children and young people in every community
Modernise ‘outdated’ legislation to give patients greater choice, autonomy, enhanced rights and support, and ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect throughout treatment
Other
A new Dentistry Rescue Plan
Plan to train thousands more midwives as part of the NHS Workforce Plan and set an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap
Implement professional standards and regulate NHS managers
Implement the expert recommendations of the Cass Review to ensure that young people presenting to the NHS with gender dysphoria are receiving appropriate and high-quality care.
Transform the NHS app, putting patients in control of their own health to better manage their medicine, appointments, and health needs
Establish a Royal College of Clinical Leadership to champion the voice of clinicians.
Commission a new HIV action plan in England, in pursuit of ending HIV cases by 2030
Tackle the social determinants of health, halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England
Prioritise women’s health as a key part of wider NHS reforms
Who is the New Secretary of State for Health and Social Care? – Wes Streeting
Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Wes Streeting has been the MP for Ilford North in London since 2015 and the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since 2021. He was returned as the MP for Ilford North in the July 2024 election with a new majority of 528.
Wes Streeting has played an active role in the Labour party over a number of years having started his political career as president of the National Union of Students (NUS) in 2008 and then consequently was elected a Labour Councillor in a by-election in 2010 for the Chadwell ward in the London Borough of Redbridge.
He has been a prominent member of the shadow cabinet and has previously served as the Shadow Minister for Schools from 2020-2021 and Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from April-October 2020.
What Will a Labour Government mean for NHS Funding?
What are the experts saying?
On the point of there being more money for the NHS under this government, Labour have promised to increase spending by 1.1% year on year but it looks like there is more of an emphasis on reform of the current system rather than wholesale commitments to lavish funding commitments and this is down in no small part to the current economic climate.
In their manifesto Labour themselves state that; ‘Investment alone won’t be enough to tackle the problems facing the NHS; it must go hand in hand with fundamental reform.’
This is also something that has been picked up on by the experts who on the whole seem to agree with Labour’s key manifesto commitments but pose a number of questions around how they will be funded.
According to the IFS, specifically on the challenge of reducing waiting times; ‘Previous experience tells us that significant waiting time reductions are possible – with the achievements of the Labour governments in the late 1990s and early 2000s a good example of this – but this time round the fiscal climate will make it much harder to increase health funding rapidly.’
The Health Foundation appears to largely agree with the IFS on the point of funding for the reduction in waiting times pledged in the Labour manifesto when it states that: ‘While the increase in activity appears feasible from an analytical perspective, there are still questions about what it will take to achieve it in practice. Labour has pledged an additional £1.3bn to fund the additional activity. Further analysis is needed to determine whether this is sufficient, but it’s worth noting that the average real-terms spending growth in health funding under the Labour government between 1997 and 2010 was 6.7%, and during this time they were able to eliminate waits of over a year.’
Furthermore, the Kings Fund states that ‘The broad ambitions for health and care set out in Labour’s manifesto tick many of the right boxes. Bolstering out-of-hospital care and focusing on preventing illness as well as treating it would lead to a healthier population and a sustainable health service.
‘But the individual pledges in the manifesto are, at best, only a policy down-payment on achieving those longer-term reforms . ‘The manifesto also makes a number of key commitments without clarity on the spending implications for health and care budgets.’
Conclusion: What Does all this mean for you as NHS Suppliers?
On the whole, despite some uncertainty over some of the headline funding commitments this should still prove to be a moment of positivity for those looking to sell into the NHS and in particular those working within the health tech space. Labour has always been considered to be the ‘party of the NHS’ and invested heavily in healthcare when it was last in government.
Labour has signalled a clear intention to ‘modernise the NHS’ and obviously digital and tech will be at the forefront of this. The NHS will need to lean on your expertise and products and services if it is to deliver its commitment to reform and modern the NHS. From the introduction of a ‘Fit for the Future Fund’ to the commitment to use AI to transform diagnostic services to a new Innovation and Adoption Strategy the importance of technology runs throughout the Labour manifesto and this can only be a good thing for those working and selling services and products into this space.
As Labour works through it first 100 days in office we will be looking at new announcements in more detail and relaying what they could mean for NHS technology suppliers, putting you in the best possible position to understand how this will impact your business.
Don't miss the opportunity to connect with public sector leaders and discuss how these changes can benefit your business. Join us at the HETT Show, the first major gathering of healthcare leaders from across the local and central government post-election. Secure your place now to meet and network with key decision-makers. Contact us today to learn more and book your spot!