TARGETING a 20 per cent increase in the use of the private sector to cut waiting lists risks “permanently embedding the profit-taking parasite” into the health service, campaigners have warned.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claimed he is “not interested in putting ideology before patients” as he unveiled the NHS’s growing use of private healthcare in a major speech today.

Private operators will receive an extra £2.5 billion a year in government funding under his new elective reform plan to address a waiting list for planned care on which 6.4 million people are waiting for 7.5m treatments.

This amounts to as many as a million extra appointments, scans and operations a year by the for-profit sector, with the official aim of patients no longer having to wait more than 18 weeks for non-urgent hospital care by spring 2029.

During his speech in Surrey, the prime minister acknowledged some people will “not like” expansion of the private sector in the NHS, but said: “To cut waiting times as dramatically as possible, our approach must be totally unburdened by dogma.”

Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr Tony O’Sullivan said: “The commitment of Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting to long-term contracts with the private sector threatens to permanently embed the profit-taking parasite in the NHS host, undermining the prospect of NHS recovery as a publicly provided universal service meeting the needs of the population.

“Starmer says he will ‘not let ideology stand in the way’ but it is their ideological choice that will stand in the way of sustainable NHS recovery.

“Safe and prompt community care will only be delivered through an urgent expansion of skilled staff.”

We Own It lead campaigner Johnbosco Nwogbo said: “Using the private sector to cut waiting lists was the centrepiece of the Conservative government’s Elective Recovery Plan in February 2022, but waiting lists kept going up.

“Starmer’s ‘new’ initiative looks suspiciously similar to the Conservatives’ failed plan.

“Hospitals are crumbling while the NHS is haemorrhaging at least £10m a week to private shareholder profits — money which could build a new operating theatre every week. 

“Whether it was Tony Blair with his disastrous PFI deals or David Cameron flinging open the door to privatisation with the Health and Social Care Act, we have seen successive governments tread this well-worn policy path with dire consequence.”

A spokeswoman for Momentum warned that “14 years of austerity has left our NHS on its knees” and highlighted that trade unions and the Socialist Health Association have warned of the dire effects of privatisation.

She said: “The NHS is Labour’s greatest achievement. Focusing on improving just one metric will not work if the government is unprepared to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis, and defend it from rapacious corporate interests.”

Health unions urged government to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis and ensure money is not poured into private profit.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham urged Sir Keir to invest in the NHS, but warned: “New investment will need to be carefully monitored and spent wisely.

“All too often in the past we have seen extra spending for new NHS initiatives disappear into the pockets of the private sector without any real benefit to patients.”

Unison head of health Helga Pile said: “Staff are the bedrock of the NHS and key to turning around its fortunes.

“Ministers know that all the extra appointments and other ways of increasing capacity won’t happen on their own. 

“Health workers have been taken for granted for years by governments and little they’ve heard from the prime minister on his plans will encourage them to feel differently.

“Without proper investment in staff, there can be no world-class NHS, no improvements in patient care, reduction in the backlog or increased efficiency of services.”