Wes Streeting will order the NHS to prioritise clearing backlogs in parts of the country with the highest levels of worklessness.
The Health Secretary will use his speech to the Labour Party conference on Wednesday to outline his efforts to get sick workers off waiting lists, saying “crack teams” will be sent into the 20 hospital trusts in the areas with the biggest rates of economic inactivity.
The Government will pledge to roll out “Formula One pit stop” surgery clinics, modelled on a scheme at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital, in central London, that operates at evenings and weekends.
Surgeons at the hospital are able to perform a week’s operations in a day by running monthly high intensity theatre lists at weekends.
Under the model, two operating theatres run side by side and as soon as one procedure is finished the next patient is already under anaesthetic and ready to be wheeled in.
It comes after a landmark report on the NHS warned that hospitals are doing less work for patients despite being given more money than ever.
Lord Darzi’s report, published earlier this month, found that, while hospital staff numbers had risen by 17 per cent since 2019, there had been little change in output.
Productivity was found to be at least 11.4 per cent lower than in 2019, while surgical activity was down by 15 per cent.
A second report, by the Institute of Public Policy Research, warned last week that, on current trends, the number of people on long-term sick leave is set to rise by more than 50 per cent in the next five years.
More than 4.3 million people will be economically inactive because of sickness by the end of this Parliament – up from 2.8 million now – unless the pattern is changed, the report found.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast that the bill for sickness and disability benefits will soar by £30 billion in the next five years on current trajectories.
Under the Government’s plans, teams of leading clinicians are being sent to hospitals to roll out the reforms and get patients treated faster.
Health officials said doctors who have developed new ways of working are delivering up to four times more operations than normal, likening the system at Guys and St Thomas’s to a “Formula One pit stop”.
Mr Streeting will say: “Ending the junior doctor strikes was central to our commitment to deliver 40,000 more appointments a week to cut waiting lists.
“But as well as getting staff back to work, we need to get them working at the top of their game. We’re sending crack teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to roll out reforms – developed by surgeons – to treat more patients and cut waiting lists.
“The first hospitals targeted by these teams will be in areas with the highest numbers of people off work sick, because our reforms are focused not only on delivering our health mission but also moving the dial on our growth mission.
“We will take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, get sick Brits back to health and back to work. That’s the difference a Labour Government makes.”
NHS waiting lists currently stand at 7.6 million, and were rising before the election. The figures show 3.1 million have been waiting longer than 18 weeks for treatment, the maximum amount of time patients are supposed to wait.
Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will also announce that young people will be put in touch with football clubs and theatre groups as part of Labour’s drive to get them back into work.
Ms Kendall will pledge that “no young person is left behind” as she seeks to overturn the high rate of youth unemployment. She wants job centre staff to visit sports and arts organisations to help more 18 to 24-year-olds get into employment, education or training.
She will say: “Too many young people have been written off by the Tories and denied the support they need to build a better life. This isn’t good for them, or our country. This Labour Government will make sure that no young person is left behind.”
Almost one million young people – more than one in eight – are not in education, employment or training, with more than 200,000 18 to 24-year-olds now out of work because of long-term health problems.
Ms Kendall will warn that failing to tackle this problem will harm young people’s life chances and future earnings, as well as adding to the spiralling benefits bill. She will bring out a white paper later this year on getting people back into work.
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