The death of NHS patients31 Mar 2026 04:40
Is this part of Labours 10 year plan? To reduce the number of appointments at hospitals for referrals to meet targets? Doctors being used to delay and halt these referrals. Labour are massaging the figures and the system to make it look like targets are improving
The truth is that Labour are killing people who can’t get a referral if they have cancer. Starmer has blood of these people on his hands, well done Starmer.
From April 1, all NHS GPs will be required to seek ‘advice and guidance’ (A&G) for at least a third of patient referrals before sending them to hospital, aiming to reduce appointments. Previously incentivised with a £20 payment per case, the A&G scheme will now be mandatory. Critics, including the British Medical Association, warn that this could override GP judgement and delay access to specialist care.
Medical leaders have raised concerns that mandatory A&G could result in dangerous delays, citing cases where patients waited months for specialist responses, including one who died before review. GPs warn that urgent cancer referrals have been downgraded to A&G responses, delaying diagnoses. Patients report long waits, cancelled appointments, and confusion caused by ‘dummy’ booking slots that offer false hope of timely treatment
The referral quotas join other NHS measures to meet Labour’s waiting list reduction pledge, such as ‘list validation’ schemes and removing millions of appointments from records. Analysis shows hospitals earned £85m in 10 months by taking 2.4 million appointments off lists, with January alone seeing 250,000 removals.
Despite these efforts, the NHS is projected to miss its 65% target for non-urgent care within 18 weeks by 2025-26
Sign In
Follow the stocks
