Practices must deliver 50 million extra appointments and take on 26,000 extra staff, the government has ordered.

The plan is contained in the annual instruction booklet issued to NHS England, known as the NHS mandate. The increase represents 15% of the current level of 300 million appointments and the demand is likely to stoke tension with practice leaders, who have already complained that contractual changes have been. According to the mandate, the increase must be achieved for next year, the financial year 2023-24.

The plan sets out how waiting lists are to be reduced, with a requirement that all patients waiting for longer than two years are treated by this July. It says that waits of one year should be eliminated by March 2025.

Listing 13 priorities, including 50 million more practice appointments, the mandate calls for 50,000 extra nurses but sets out no priorities for doctor recruitment. The mandate also repeats the government’s claim that it will build 40 new hospitals. Critics say this has been interpreted to include new wings of hospitals.

It also states the NHS will “work towards improving A&E performance as conditions allow,” leading Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Katherine Henderson to tweet: “Not feeling hopeful.”

Introduce the mandate, Health Secretary Sajid Javid wrote: “This mandate sets a framework for NHS England in the year ahead, leading the NHS in recovering services impacted by the pandemic, so that we can get back on track with further improving them, tackling health and healthcare disparities, and supporting system leaders to build the effective relationships with local government and other partners that will foster innovation.”

He added: “We must build further on lessons learned from the pandemic to take forward the ambitious programme of reform that will ensure the NHS is able to, effectively and efficiently, respond to the longer-term challenges of a growing and ageing population, rising public expectations, changing burden of disease and addressing entrenched disparities.”