At a glance - our simple interactive chart shows the political parties' plans for YOUR health services READ MORE: Stars call on next Government to finally appoint an 'Allergy Tsar' By Emily Stearn, Health Reporter For Mailonline and Annie Scales, Visual Storytelling Designer Published: 15:36 BST, 2 July 2024 | Updated: 15:59 BST, 2 July 2024 e-mail 2 View comments With the general election now less than 48 hours away, pledges and promises have come thick and fast from every party. They come as public satisfaction with the health service, hit hard by Covid, is at its lowest since records began 40 years ago. More than a million appointments and operations have been cancelled because of a seemingly never-ending wave of NHS strikes that kicked off in 2022, exacerbating delays.
The crisis has even seen some patients opt to cash in pensions and raid family savings to go private in a bid to beat lengthy NHS queues. Labour 's 131-page manifesto has vowed to tackle NHS waiting lists, the never-ending dental appointment crisis and failing maternity care. Two in three maternity units in England are deemed not safe enough.
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour will 'return to meeting NHS performance standards', double the number of cancer scanners and add 8,500 new NHS mental health staff. The Conservatives, meanwhile, have pledged to provide 2.5million more NHS dental appointments, cut cancer waiting times and ban disposable e-cigs completely.
Rishi Sunak's party has also promised to bui.