Targets alone not enough to end NHS' postcode lottery in Yorkshire, Sir Keir Starmer warned

Sir Keir will deliver a major speech on Thursday following a backlash to the Budget, plummeting poll ratings and the first resignation from his Cabinet.

Ministers and officials have insisted the “Plan for Change” is not a reset after just five months in office but an attempt to show how the Government will deliver on the five “missions” set out in the Labour manifesto.

One of these targets is expected to be that 92 per cent of consultant referrals get treated in 18 weeks by 2029.

This has not been hit for almost a decade, and NHS figures have warned it could take resources away from A&E - despite a £22 billion funding boost announced in the Budget.

The latest data shows that Yorkshire’s NHS commissioning region, which includes the North East, is the best-performing in England with this metric.

Some 65 per cent of patients were treated within 18 weeks in September, compared to the 59 per cent average across England.

However, across Yorkshire and the Humber there are huge regional disparities, with coastal areas in particular struggling.

While at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust almost three-quarters of patients were treated within 18 weeks of referral, at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole and York and Scarborough NHS trusts this figure drops to 55 per cent.

While at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the third worst performing trust in the region, this figure is at 57 per cent.

Dr Annie Williamson, research fellow at IPPR, urged the Government to look beyond targets to even up this kind of postcode lottery.

She said: “There are striking inequalities in waiting times and access to NHS care between towns and cities just kilometres apart.

“The NHS hasn't met the 92 per cent target for 18-week waiting times since 2015, and many rural and coastal areas are particularly far from this goal.

“Closing the health gap is the best, and fairest, way to get the country back to better health and economic prosperity for all.

“Yet targets alone cannot drive true improvement - we need to rewire the NHS for success, through policies such as regional pooled waiting lists and more preventive community services in areas of greatest need.”

In the Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced what she called the biggest real-terms increase in day-to-day NHS spending since 2010 – outside the Covid pandemic – providing £22.6 billion for the health service along with another £3.1bn of capital investment.

Labour has pledged to send “crack teams” of leading clinicians into four hospitals across the region - including in Hull - as part of a Government bid to cut down waiting lists and boost employment.

A spokesperson for NHS Humber Health Partnership, which represents Northern Lincolnshire and Goole and Hull NHS trusts, said: “We have been working very hard to meet the national standard of not having people waiting longer than 65 weeks, and we have done very well in reducing that.

“We had 19 patients at the end of October, and across the country there were 21,799. This has been our top priority in reducing the maximum waiting time.

“We know for next year we have got to reduce the waiting time for all our patients … which we hope will show a significant improvement in this area by the end of March 2026.

“We are also part of the Further Faster 20 initiative and as a group have received £60,000 central funding to focus on the needs of working age adults and getting them back into the workplace as this is a national priority.”