Sajid Javid pledges 15,000 new health workers by March

The news comes as the Government warned that the NHS waiting list in England will take two more years to fall and could potentially double in size. 

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Sajid Javid said the NHS aimed "to recruit 10,000 more nurses from overseas and 5,000 more healthcare support workers by the end of March."

Setting out his plan in the Commons on how to tackle the Covid-19 backlog, Mr. Javid made new targets for reducing the long wait and getting people checked faster. 

Today we published our plan to tackle the Covid Backlog:

👉🏽 deliver 9 million more tests, checks & procedures by 2025

👉🏽 end waits over a year for 99% of people by 2024, and everyone by 2025

👉🏽 offer patients more choice about their care pic.twitter.com/s6yA3TSfKz

— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) February 8, 2022

Sajid Javid plan to cut the NHS waiting list:

• Waits longer than a year will end by March 2025
• No one will wait longer than two years for treatment by July 2022
• 95% of patients in need of a diagnostic test will receive it in six weeks by March 2025
• By March 2024, 75% of patients referred by their GP for suspected Cancer will have a result within 28 days
• From March 2023 people will wait no more than 62 days between urgent referral for cancer and the start of treatment. 

Currently, there are more than six million people in England on the NHS waiting list for treatment such as hip and knee replacement and tests. 

Before the pandemic, 1,600 people were waiting longer than a year for care, but now the same figure is over 300,000. 

Speaking in the Commons Mr Javid said: "Assuming half of the missing demand from the pandemic returns over the next three years, the NHS expects waiting lists to be reducing by March 2024.

"Addressing long waits is critical to the recovery of elective care and we will be actively offering longer-waiting patients greater choice about their care to help bring these numbers down."

The plan focuses on four areas: increasing health service capacity, prioritising diagnosis and treatment, reforming care, and increasing activity through surgical hubs. 

As previously announced, some nine million additional treatments and diagnostic procedures will be brought in by 2025, while the admin burden on staff will be cut.