At a press conference on Monday, Keir Starmer unveiled a series of reforms aimed at reducing waiting lists to a maximum of 18 weeks for most patients.
A plan to reform the NHS to cut waiting times and make the health service "fit for the future" was laid out by Sir Keir Starmer today.
Speaking at a press conference, the prime minister accepted there is a "feeling of record dissatisfaction" over the NHS as long waiting lists mean too many people are left "with their lives on hold".
"So 2025 is about rebuilding Britain and rebuilding our NHS is the cornerstone of that," he said "But to catapult the service into the future, we need an NHS that is reformed from top to bottom, millions of extra appointments signed, sealed and delivered with the plan that we are launching here today."
Some key elements of the elective reform plan include moving care to communities and people's homes to free up hospital wards, making greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology, and a new partnership with private sector healthcare providers.
Here, Yahoo News breaks down what has been promised as the government tries to reduce waiting times for 92% of NHS patients from a maximum of 18 months to 18 weeks by the end of this Parliament in 2029.
The NHS app will be overhauled to give patients more choice under the elective reform plan.
At Monday's conference in Surrey, Starmer said he wanted the NHS to give patients "the level of convenience that they take for granted in nearly every other service they use every day", suggesting the app could be used as easily as a food delivery or dating app.
Currently, the NHS app can be used for the likes of booking and managing appointments, viewing health records and ordering repeat prescriptions, but the upgrade will allow patients to choose from a range of providers, including in the private sector, for non-emergency elective care.
Users will also be able to view and manage appointments, book tests and checks at convenient locations such as community diagnostic centres, receive test results, and book any necessary follow-up appointments, such as remote consultations or surgery.
The first step of the plan will come into force in March, when patients at more than 85% of acute trusts will be able to view their appointments on the NHS app. They will also be able to contact their healthcare provider and receive regular updates, including how long they are likely to wait.
Financial incentives for GPs to consult with specialists to discuss alternatives to sending patients to hospital for treatment are also a part of Labour's reform plans.
Doctors will be offered payments each time they consult a specialist, either by email or over the phone, under the so-called advice and guidance (A&G) scheme, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed to Yahoo News.
The Observer previously reported that payments would be £20 per consultation.
Examples of when a patient might be offered alternative community care could include ear, nose and throat issues, where around 30% of referrals currently made to secondary care could be provided in the community.
NHS trusts who make the fastest improvements in cutting waiting times will be rewarded with additional funding for capital projects tailored to local needs, the DHSC has said.
This could include investment in hospital ward maintenance or cutting edge AI diagnostic equipment.
Starmer gave an example of an AI-powered stethoscope "can tell in a heartbeat, literally, whether you're at risk of cardiac failure".
The PM hailed a new agreement to expand the relationship between the NHS and private healthcare sector in a bid to slash waiting times.
He said that while the health service is already able to make use of private sector capacity and resources, this new agreement is "more comprehensive" and allows facilities to be used for a wider range of cases.
"That's more beds, more operations, more care available to the NHS. Treating patients free at the point of use, targeted at where we need the most," he said.
Starmer stressed that this is not a substitute for the "mainstream work" of the NHS, but that the health service needs to "make better use" of the private sector support it already has.
With an estimated eight million appointments missed in 2023-24, officials are working on measures to tackle this costly issue faced by the NHS.
Improving two-way communication between patients and clinicians, as well as using artificial intelligence (AI), could save an additional one million missed appointments, the DHSC estimates.
Work is under way to pilot AI services that pinpoint patients who are likely to miss an appointment so that extra support, such as free transport, can be offered.
Patients will also be offered support, including help losing weight or quitting smoking, to ensure they are as fit and prepared as possible for treatment while awaiting operations, not only to boost post-op results and recovery, but also to reduce on-the-day cancellations.
Hundreds of thousands of patients will be able to get directly referred and booked in for tests, checks and scans by their GP for a range of conditions under the government's new plans.
People with conditions such as breathlessness, asthma in children and young people, and post-menopausal bleeding will no longer need to see a consultant first, NHS England says.
The health service says millions of people will receive quicker diagnosis and treatment, while thousands more will same day service.
Starmer said the government would create more diagnostic centres, offering tests, scans and X-rays, which will be open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
He said the centres will deliver 440,000 extra tests and scans every year, and, combined with GPs being able to make direct referrals, will prevent an extra 800,000 unnecessary referrals and appointments.
Starmer told journalists on Monday that patients with long-term conditions would be able to monitor themselves at home and would be provided technology to do so.
The DHSC says wearable tech can be used to collect vital health data on patients without them having to see a healthcare professional face to face.
The prime minister said this use of technology at home would prevent half-a-million unnecessary appointments each year.
He said shifting treatment away from hospitals "shifting care towards people's communities and to their homes" will "make such a difference to waiting times".
Figures published by NHS England in December showed an estimated 7.54 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of October.
This was down from 7.57 million at the end of September and the lowest figure since March 2024, but still falls far short of the government's targets.
Figures from the BMA, published in December, show that a target set in February 2022 to eliminate waiting lists longer than 65 weeks by March 2024 has been missed, while a longer-term target of 92% of patients receiving treatment within 18 weeks of referral has not been met since September 2015.
The BMA says that in October 2024, the waiting list stood at around 7.5 million, consisting of approximately 6.3 million individual patients waiting for treatment, but this only tells part of the story.
It says the referral to treatment waiting list does not include waiting for non-consultant-led treatment, or patients waiting for follow up appointments once they have begun treatment.
Furthermore, the association says the "hidden backlog", which includes patients who require care but have not yet presented to healthcare providers is also growing, meaning the headline figures do not show the full extent of the overall backlog.
Of the 7.5 million on the official waiting list, 3.1 million have been waiting over 18 weeks, while almost 234,900 have been waiting over a year for treatment, according to the BMA.
The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll on the NHS, it adds, with the median waiting time nearly doubling from 7.6 weeks in October 2019 to 14.2 weeks in October 2024.
Meanwhile cancer targets continue to be missed, with the percentage of people receiving their first cancer treatment within one month from a decision to treat standing at 91.5% in October 2024 - below the 96% target.
Around 68.2% received their first treatment within two months, which is significantly below the operational standard of 85%. However, the percentage of patients told they have cancer within four weeks of an urgent referral stood at 77.1%, which is above the target of 75%.
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