NHS waiting lists worst moment of being PM, says Sunak

Rishi Sunak has admitted that failing to get NHS waiting lists down has been his worst moment as Prime Minister.

Mr Sunak said that issues relating to the health service mattered to him “particularly coming from an NHS family” and that failing to slash waiting times was “disappointing”.

‌Helping to clear the backlog was one of Mr Sunak’s five priorities that he set out at the beginning of 2023, telling voters: “You can hold me to account directly for whether it is delivered”.

‌But the overall waiting list for the NHS has gone up since he made the pledge and remains at over 7.5 million, according to official figures from May.

Asked on BBC Breakfast what his worst moment had been as Prime Minister, Mr Sunak said: “It’s a difficult job and when I can’t make as much progress as I would like on the things that matter to me and matter to the country, of course that’s disappointing.

“On the NHS waiting list, for example, particularly coming from an NHS family as I do – I was just at a pharmacy yesterday talking about growing up in my mum’s pharmacy working with her and helping her and working to support her patients – so that has been disappointing not to have been able to make more progress on NHS waiting lists in spite of the record funding we’re putting in, but we are now making progress.”

The Prime Minister blamed the pandemic for causing such a severe backlog, with six million referrals that were unable to take place during the lockdowns.

‌“Even though the NHS is doing an extraordinary amount – more than it has ever done in its history – backed by record funding, it is just going to take time to work through those six million missed referrals that we’re now getting through,” he added.

Labour have put slashing waiting lists as one of their “first steps for change” if they enter government on Friday, by delivering 40,000 more appointments a week.

Mr Sunak said that his best moments in the role of prime minister had been speaking to people “who themselves had faced some tragedy in their lives” but in spite of it “actually decide to go out there and campaign for positive change”.

He added: “They can raise awareness of an issue. I think that is very inspiring, those are the best moments of this job”.