Radical plan to slash NHS backlog and boost economy by getting patients 'back to work'

Hospital would be paid when they get sick patients “back to work” under radical plans to slash waiting lists and boost the economy.

A senior aide to Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the policy would tackle the “national crisis” of 2.8 million people out of of a job due to poor health.

Professor Paul Corrigan, who last week was appointed strategic adviser to the Department of Health, said the NHS should be paid by results to ensure it made better use of funding.

He warned: “There is no experience on the National Health Service of actually doing something for an output. And the output isn’t the person getting better, it’s the person getting a job.

“So we could construct a system where people, NHS England is paid to do that if the person gets the job.”

Setting out the plan in a podcast with think tank the Health Foundation, Prof Corrigan said the measure “would be in the national interest” adding: “We do need these people in work.”

Mr Streeting argues that reforms to the NHS can help the Government grow the economy by cutting the numbers off sick as well as creating jobs directly in the NHS and helping attract investment in life sciences.

But he is gearing up for a battle with left wing critics after vowing to increase the use of the private sector.

The Health Secretary pointed out that people who can afford it were already using private healthcare and said: “One of the reasons I was determined in opposition to take on the left on this issue is this isn’t simply a pragmatic argument that says ‘well, we can get waiting lists down faster if we use spare capacity in the private sector’, though that’s important. It was also a principled argument that said ‘why should those without means wait longer while those who have means are seen faster?’”

Mocking opponents for attacking him on social media services such as X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, he said: “If you’re using Elon musk’s platform to complain that I want to privatise the NHS, irony rolled over and died.”

As well as bringing in Prof Corrigan, who previously advised former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair, Mr Streeting has recruited former Health Secretary Alan Milburn to drive through NHS reforms.

An independent investigation into the health service led by NHS surgeon Lord Darzi will produce a report in September, with the findings forming the basis of a ten-year plan for changing the NHS.

Mr Streeting pledged: “He will ask the hard questions, leave no stone unturned, and speak truth to power. I’ve instructed my department to hand over any information he asks for, and NHS England will do the same.”

And he insisted that NHS staff welcomed the prospect of reforms, saying: “Staff working on the frontline are crying out for change and full of ideas to improve the service.”

However Mr Streeting warned junior doctors they will not get the 35 percent increase they are demanding to end industrial action, as he prepared to hold further talks with them this week.

“This government has inherited the worst economic circumstances since the Second World War, and taxpayers cannot afford a 35 percent pay increase,” he said.