Analysis: What does Labour’s manifesto mean for your healthcare organisation?
With Labour consistently leading by 20+ points in the polls and the Conservatives now focused on preventing a “supermajority”, it appears more and more likely that this election will deliver a Labour Government for the first time since 2010.
So what will this mean for the organisations that operate within our healthcare system?
And how important will effective healthcare communications be when it comes to ensuring that organisations who have the potential to make a positive difference to health, get that opportunity?
Here’s our breakdown by organisation type.
NHS organisations
Labour has committed to prioritising measures to ‘get the NHS back on its feet’. In the short term, this will mean incentivising staff overtime to deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans and appointments per week in order to cut the waiting list. It will also include utilising private healthcare capacity (more on that later).
Looking further ahead, the manifesto outlines a mission to modernise the NHS. Labour commits to a new ‘Fit for the Future’ fund to double the number of CT and MRI scanners and to delivering the New Hospitals Programme to tackle the problem of NHS estates being in disrepair after years of neglect.
When it comes to the workforce, Labour has pledged to deliver the recently published NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which will involve significantly increasing staff numbers and training, and to publishing regular independent workforce plans.
The party has also committed to implementing professional standards and to regulating NHS managers. The NHS Confederation welcomes the pledge, which balances offering support and accountability and Labour promises to take action against those who commit serious misconduct. Labour will also establish a Royal College of Clinical Leadership to champion the voices of clinicians.
The manifesto was cautiously welcomed by NHS Providers, who outlined the importance of eliminating the £11bn-plus repairs backlog.
Key Communications Considerations
From a communications point of view, effective internal communications will be needed to inspire a tired workforce to commit to delivering the promised extra appointments. Empathy will be important and behaviour change communications principles will be needed to inspire action.
NHS organisations may also look to hold any new government to account on capital spending budgets, which have suffered in recent years, and make their own case.
Primary and community care providers
The need to focus on preventative healthcare is well established and Labour wants to deliver it by reforming the system.
The party has committed to training more GPs and bringing back the ‘family doctor’ experience by incentivising GPs to see the same patients.
To reduce the pressure on primary care, Labour has also committed to giving pharmacists greater prescribing powers and allowing other health professionals, such as opticians, to make direct referrals into specialist services.
Labour talks in its manifesto about integrating health and care services and ensuring that more care happens in the community. The party says it will trial Neighbourhood Health Centres of multidisciplinary teams, including family doctors, district nurses, care workers, physios, palliative care and mental health specialists, all under one roof.
Dentistry is also a big focus, and Labour has committed to reforming the dental contract and investing in educating children aged 3-5 on tooth-brushing.
Key Communications Considerations
There are some exciting opportunities here and primary and community care providers may benefit from thinking about how they would message these changes.The idea of the family doctor has a warmth that will appeal to patients, while increased responsibilities for pharmacists, opticians and others enhances the standing of those professions, if communicated in the right way.
Wes Streeting
Private healthcare providers and payers
Labour reiterated its previous promise to use spare capacity in the independent healthcare sector to ensure NHS patients are diagnosed and treated more quickly, as the party prioritises bringing waiting lists back under control.
The pledge was warmly welcomed by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, who pointed out that YouGov polling had found that it was one of the most popular policies put forward by any party.
This commitment is made in the context of urgently bringing down the waiting lists, so it's unclear at this stage whether it will lead to more opportunities for private healthcare providers in the long-term - though it is said that healthcare investors are ‘optimistic’ on that front.
This has been a contentious subject in the TV debates. Last night on ITV for example, SNP leader Stephen Flynn claimed that Labour had committed to “holding the door open to the private sector.” However, as our November 2023 blog on the subject shows, this statement was actually made by Wes Streeting in relation to ensuring faster adoption of “cutting edge treatments and technologies”, rather than wider use of private healthcare services as a whole.
Key Communications Considerations
In the short term, it appears that private healthcare companies have an opportunity to make a major contribution to solving the NHS waiting list crisis. There is a real hero and villain narrative here, and for private healthcare companies, which are often cast as the villains in competition with the NHS, strong messaging and campaigning could significantly strengthen their reputation, which studies show accounts for more than 25% of a company’s market value.
Life sciences and health technology
Labour’s manifesto describes the work being done in data and life sciences in the UK as ‘revolutionary’ and says it has the potential to transform our nation’s healthcare.
To harness it, Labour says it will develop an NHS Innovation and Adoption Strategy for England, to increase the spread and speed of adopting key technologies into the NHS.
The party says it will provide clearer routes into the NHS and will develop a new plan for NHS procurement, including incentives to encourage the adoption of effective innovations and the reduction of bureaucracy that can otherwise slow things down.
Labour also pledges to maximise the UK’s potential to lead the world in clinical trials - something that I heard a lot about at the Health Communications Association conference that I attended yesterday - by speeding up recruitment. The party says it will do this by using the NHS App to make it more efficient and accessible, so that more people can participate. The party’s recognition of the potential in this sector and the measures outlined in the manifesto were welcomed by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
From a technology point of view, the measures outlined in the manifesto are in-line with Labour’s previous mission statement on the NHS, which detailed big opportunities for more technology-enabled diagnosis and monitoring at home, greater use of tech to support independent living and increased focus on interoperability and providing patients with access to their own health data.
While not referenced in the manifesto, Labour has recently pledged to make life sciences and innovation a key priority for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
Key Communications Considerations
With the focus here being on speed, spread and improved care, life sciences and technology companies should prioritise communications efforts in these areas. Proof of effectiveness and impact need to be clearly articulated through a multi-channel approach and messaging should increase confidence that innovations would be quickly and easily rolled out more widely, by sharing past successes.
It is likely that those life sciences and technology companies that have the most visible evidence that they are clinically effective and have the capability to roll-out at speed will find themselves at the front of the queue for widespread adoption. Read our blog on how healthcare companies can achieve this.
Public health and overall approaches
When it comes to public health, Labour strongly emphasises the importance of education, tackling inequalities and focusing on priority conditions.
They want to keep moving forward with measures that empower patients, give them choices and put them at the centre of their own care.
There will be also continue to be a big focus on the management of long-term chronic conditions - with cancer, cardiovascular disease and suicide all mentioned. This suggests we may well see the publication of the long-awaited Major Conditions Strategy under a Labour government.
Key Communications Considerations
For healthcare organisations that can support these big picture aims, building your case now is important. You need to bring to life the story of how you can help and create powerful integrated campaigns that bring your target audiences on a journey to action.
Our message to all health organisations right now is simple. We are heading into a time of significant change. Change can create risk or opportunity, depending on how you respond to it. How you communicate will play a major part.
We recommend briefing your PR, public affairs and communications agency now so that you are well-placed to ensure that the upcoming changes work for you. If you don’t have an agency partner - or you’re looking to change - and you have a purpose of improving health, we’d love to discuss how we can help you.
About the author:
Leigh Greenwood is the founder and managing director of Evergreen PR, the healthcare PR agency that makes health happen. He is a chartered PR professional who has been working in healthcare PR, public affairs and communications for the last 20 years. He has worked across the whole spectrum of healthcare and has scooped more than 40 industry awards for effective health campaigns that generated measurable outcomes.
Find out more about Evergreen PR: about us, our services, our work.
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