NHS waiting lists have again risen to a record high, with new figures now putting the total number of patients waiting for treatment at 7,415,000. This marks an increase of 85,000 since last month, which, if Guido were to have reused the same graphic, would literally be off the chart. In the 156 days since Rishi Sunak pledged to cut waiting lists, waiting lists have grown by 220,000. That’s 1,400 a day extra every single day of the week since the pledge was made….

With slight progress on small boats, inflation falling and some – admittedly meagre – growth, Rishi’s fourth pledge is looking like the hardest to deliver. NHS waiting lists have increased in every month since Rishi Sunak made his promise to get them down in January…

The Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley, South London opened a new link-bridge decorated with a huge “intersex-inclusive pride flag” on the outside, and pride-flag themed rainbow wallpaper inside. The new flag includes the traditional rainbow plus the trans pride flag, two black and brown stripes to represent Black Lives Matter, and a yellow triangle with a purple circle in it to represent intersex people. Technicolour-woke!

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, could not provide the total cost for the year-long building project when asked by The Telegraph. They should watch their wallet as they ran up a debt of £191 million in 2019, the biggest debt of any foundation trust in NHS history.

Keir Starmer has just wrapped up his speech outlining Labour’s plan to supposedly save the health service from the Tories, claiming the “NHS is on the line” and only his party can stop its imminent demise. This is now the eighteenth time in 26 years that a Labour politician has claimed time is running out to rescue the NHS… 

While the bulk of the speech focused on introducing yet more targets and banning pre-watershed junk food advertising, Starmer also vowed to pump more cash into the service to fund “thousands more staff”. 

“On cost, we have set out the costing for our specific proposals in terms. What it will cost, where we will get the money from. Technology, research, development, they will be the game-changers of the future and reduce costs…”

Here is the full briefing for Labour’s NHS “mission”. It contains only one reference to their plans for raising the health service budget: the hiring of more staff will be “fully funded by scrapping the non-dom tax status“. Supposedly they won’t produce a firm figure until the general election. Starmer insisted in his speech it was “just wrong” to challenge him on this – apparently just saying “this is fully funded” is enough, no need for an actual sum…

NHS waiting lists hit a record high of around 7.3 million people at the end of March, up from 7.2 million in February and the highest since records began in August 2007. Rishi promised in January that “NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly”, yet here we are in May and the list is only growing…

The government also failed to meet its promise to cut all waits of over 18 months for routine treatment by April. Although the figure has dropped from 29,778 to 10,737 between the end of February and March, by Guido’s maths that’s still significantly higher than 0. The only hope Rishi has of clawing back support is by showing results. So far, he’s falling short. The tide needs to turn, and quickly…

A 5% pay deal for NHS workers has been signed off between the government and a majority of health unions this afternoon, paving the way for Health Secretary Steve Barclay to implement the offer for “all staff on the Agenda for Change contract“:

“I’m pleased the NHS Staff Council has voted to accept our pay offer, demonstrating that a majority of NHS staff agree this is a fair and reasonable deal. It is now my intention to implement this for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract and where some unions may choose to remain in dispute, we hope their members – many of whom voted to accept this offer – will recognise this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end.”

Unison and GMB have agreed to the offer, although the Royal College of Nursing and Unite are still refusing to budge. With a majority of the unions backing it, however, the existing offer could be imposed regardless…

The Unite union have rejected the government’s latest NHS worker pay offer of a 5% pay rise, following the Royal College of Nursing doing the same last week. Although the High Court ruled yesterday that the one of RCN’s planned upcoming strike was unlawful…

Unite mainly represents ambulance drivers and junior health staff workers. Unite’s Onay Kasab told Sky News this morning:

“This is sending a clear message to the government. The pay offer is inadequate. It doesn’t deal with the pay crisis and it doesn’t deal with the general crisis that is taking place in the NHS.”

The GMB union is also set to release the results of its membership ballot this afternoon. They’re expected to back the government’s offer. Stay tuned…