Key health pledges in the Conservative Party manifesto (2024)

Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party has promised to fund the NHS above inflation and increase the number of nurses by almost 100,000, while cutting national insurance yet again.

The party's 2024 general election manifesto, unveiled today (11 June) at Silverstone by Mr Sunak, saw the party lay out its promises should the incumbent government win the election, which will take place next month.

"We Conservatives have a plan to give you financial security"

Rishi Sunak

In its section on health, the party said it would raise NHS funding, see through the New Hospital Programme to its completion and improve working conditions for staff on one hand. On the other, the Conservatives said they aimed to abolish national insurance in the future, once it was “economically responsible”.

“We Conservatives have a plan to give you financial security,” said Mr Sunak.

“We will enable working people to keep more of the money you earn because you have earned it and have the right to choose what to spend it on.”

The incumbent prime minister, who is expected by many political spectators to lose the election, added: “We Conservatives have had to take difficult decisions because of Covid. But we are now cutting taxes for earners, parents and pensioners.

“We are the party of Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson, a party, unlike Labour, that believes in sound money.

“In this party, we believe that it is morally right that those who can work do work, and that hard work is rewarded with people being able to keep more of their own money. We will ensure that we have lower welfare so we can lower taxes.”

Below are the party’s key pledges on nursing, and the wider health and social care community.

Technology in the health service

Mr Sunak promised to invest £3.4bn into new technology in the NHS, should his party be elected next month.

This, the party has said, would go towards improvements to the NHS app, artificial intelligence systems to “free up” nurse and doctor time and towards replacing outdated computer equipment in NHS facilities.

As well as this, the party promised to use it to speed up MRI and CT scan readings and create “new incentives” for care providers to improve performance.

NHS funding and investments

The party pledged to increase NHS spending “above inflation” every year, in order to fund the rest of its plans for the health service.

However, the party, among several other cuts to tax, promised an additional 2p reduction from employee national insurance, halving it by 2027 and added: “Our long-term plan is to abolish it altogether, when it is economically responsible to do so.”

In 2020, the Conservative-run government announced the New Hospital Programme, aiming to build 40 new hospitals in England by 2030. Today’s manifesto launch saw this pledge renewed.

Workforce and recruitment

The manifesto promised to “improve working conditions for all NHS staff”, and pointed to existing plans in place to boost recruitment, training and retention laid out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published last year.

As part of this, the party’s manifesto promised to fully back the workforce plan and increase the number of nurses in the NHS by 92,000, and the number of doctors by 28,000, by the end of the next parliament, compared with 2023.

Further, the Conservatives promised to reform the dental contract to improve its “future sustainability” and to encourage dentists to work in the NHS.

Social care

Mr Sunak promised to support a “high-quality and sustainable social care system”.

To this end, he said that at the next spending review, local authorities would be given a new multi-year funding settlement to support social care.

Mr Sunak also pledged to cap social care costs from October 2025.

Moving healthcare ‘away from hospitals’

Mr Sunak’s party outlined its focus on primary care for the future of the NHS, mirroring pledges made earlier this year by opposition Labour to move health out of hospitals and into the community.

The Conservatives said they would “build or modernise” 250 GP surgeries, in particular focusing on areas where lots of new houses are being built.

A further 50 community diagnostic centres would, the party promised, be built to provide 2.5 million procedures each year.

As well as this, the party promised to expand the NHS Pharmacy First scheme, which was launched in January 2024 to allow patients to attend a community pharmacist instead of a GP for minor illnesses or repeat prescriptions.

Mr Sunak said his party, if elected, would roll the scheme out to include menopause support, contraception and chest infection treatment.

Mental health

The manifesto included a promise to expand 'mental health support team' coverage from 50% to 100% of schools and colleges in England by 2030, open more early support hubs and further expand NHS talking therapies.

Further, the Conservatives said they would increase the capacity of services for those with a severe mental illness by 140,000 places and pass a law to improve the treatment of those in this patient group.

Other promises

The Conservative Party also made a series of promises about other health-related issues.

The first was a pledge to create the Infected Blood Compensation authority, to issue compensation to the victims of the infected blood scandal, “no matter” the cost.

Secondly, it promised to continue implementing the ban on the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January, 2009.

The party also said it would reduce the number of managers in the NHS by 5,500 in an attempt to "release £550m to frontline services", fund more UK-based clinical trials and further improve on the party’s 2022 Women’s Health Strategy.

Transgender healthcare

The party pledged to “complete the implementation” of the Cass Review. As part of this, the manifesto said this would continue a ban on routine puberty blockers for treating gender dysphoria in young people – a recommendation which was not in the Cass Review.

The Conservatives also reiterated their plans to amend NHS Constitution to allow the exclusion of transgender patients from single-sex wards, at the request of another patient.

Mr Sunak’s party also said it would reform the Equality Act to emphasise that “sex” refers to “biological sex”.

Response from healthcare leaders

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) acting general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger accused Mr Sunak’s party of just “recommitting to old targets in rhetoric”, and said what he promised “isn’t enough”.

Professor Ranger criticised the manifesto for lacking any mention of her union’s ongoing dispute with the government about the NHS pay award and said nurses would “fear” the tax cuts the Conservatives suggested.

Further, the RCN said the party’s suggested legal cap on migration – in the context of wide nursing vacancies – was a “road to nowhere”.

The manifesto pledged a cap on migration, which would fall each year. As well as this, the Conservatives said they would increase visa fees and up the health surcharge that migrants pay to use the NHS.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of NHS Confederation, said the incumbent prime minister’s pledge to up NHS funding was “heartening”, but aired concerns that it might come with “stringent” targets.

On the cutting of managers, Mr Taylor said: “Pledges to cut managers may grab headlines but the NHS is under-managed compared to international health systems and other parts of the UK workforce.

“Cutting 5,500 managers may save cash but this could pile more paperwork on to clinicians, when they should be given more time to look after their patients.”

NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley also welcomed the promise of more funding to the health service, and in particular the pledge to deliver the New Hospital Programme by 2030.

He said: “With commitments spanning the breadth and depth of workforce, social care and digital to public health, capital and mental health, trust leaders will closely scrutinise the wide range of proposals put forward in the Conservative Party manifesto.”