More than 6.6 million people in England are waiting for hospital treatment, which Mr Sunak has declared a national emergency.

The Ex-Chancellor plans to eliminate one-year waiting times by September 2024 and get the number of overall patients waiting for operations falling by next year if he becomes prime minister.Rishi Sunak has also outlined that he will implement more diagnostic services, including MRI and CT scans, in repurposed empty High street shops in an effort to bring down waiting times.

There are currently more than 6.6 million people within the UK on NHS waiting lists for hospital treatments and reportedly 50,000 people dying per year due to poor treatment.In a campaign speech in Grantham, which is the hometown of former Tory PM Margaret Thatcher, Rishi Sunak declared that tackling the NHS backlog was the biggest service emergency facing the UK today."Waiting times for everything from major surgery to a visit to the GP are at record levels. Millions of people are waiting for life-saving cancer screening, major surgeries and consultations."Already many people are using money they can't really afford to go private. That is privatisation by the back door and its wrong.

People shouldn't have to make a choice with a gun to their head."If we do not immediately set in train a radically different approach the NHS will come under unsustainable pressure and break."Britain's heroic response to Covid proves that where the political will exists to really grip a problem, when we treat something as an emergency, we can bring everyone together and win the battle. That takes leadership."

So I'll take the best of our experience from Covid and establish at the centre of my government a backlogs taskforce to support the leadership of the NHS to triage and treat patients quicker... I want to give people peace of mind that this emergency will be gripped."Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting was critical of Mr Sunak's message, commenting that: "If Rishi Sunak thinks NHS waiting lists are an emergency, why didn't he do anything about it as chancellor?"He says he wants to put the NHS onto a 'war footing' but the Conservatives have spent years disarming it."On his watch, HS waiting lists have reached the longest ever and patient satisfaction with the NHS is the worst on record."Only a Labour government will give Britain the fresh start it needs. Labour will rebuild our NHS with the staff, equipment, and modern technology needed to treat patients on time again."