South Thanet Labour Party

Working for the people of the South Thanet Constituency

Keeping the country healthy

HEALTH – Labour’s KEY ACHIEVEMENTS 1997-2010

 

• Trebled the Health budget in cash terms 1996/7 to 2007/8
• Over 85,000 more nurses and over 32,000 more doctors since 1997
• Ten years ago half of the NHS estate was built before the NHS itself; it is now down to a quarter. 157 new hospitals built or on the way – the largest sustained hospital building programme since the NHS was founded
• More than 2,800 GP premises improved or refurbished

 

• Waiting times
• 1 million people seen by the NHS every 36 hours
• All waiting lists down by nearly 388,600
• Average wait for inpatient treatment is now just 7.6 weeks
• ·Virtually nobody waiting over 6 months – down by nearly 284,000 since 97
• Waits for cataracts down to three months, down from up to 2 years
• Waits for heart operations down to less than three months
• 662,000 more operations a year now compared with 1997
• A&E waits – 19 out of 20 spend less than 4 hours in A&E
• More than 75 NHS walk-in centres open including 4 commuter walk-in centres
• 44 NHS Treatment Centres treating c.304,000 people since 2003. 21 ISTCs operational and centrally procured independent sector schemes delivering over 300,000 treatments and diagnostic tests

 

• Cancer/CVD
• Over 99% of people with suspected cancer seen by a specialist within 2 weeks of being referred (up from 63% in 1997)
• 99.3% of cancer patients are treated within a month of diagnosis.
• 93.8% of cancer patients are treated within two months of an urgent referral.
• Cancer death rates down by 15.7% from 1995-97 baseline saving over 50,000 lives
• Deaths rates from heart disease (cardiovascular disease – CVD) down by 35.9% from 1995-97 baseline saving nearly 150,000 lives
• 226 new CT scanners and 155 new MRI scanners delivered since 2000