Labour calls emergency debate over A&E ‘crisis’
Labour calls an emergency House of Commons debate to urge the government to relieve pressure on A&E department, as figures show hundreds of operations are being cancelled every day.
Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has written to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt calling the situation in the UK’s accident and emergency departments a “crisis” and adding there is evidence “the situation could deteriorate further”.
This is a crisis of this government’s own making. Andy Burnham
“This matter is now urgent as there is clear evidence that the situation could soon deteriorate even further,” Mr Burnham wrote. “The NHS cannot take a further round of front-line jobs cuts without putting patients at risk.
“The health secretary must act without delay to ensure that every hospital in England is operating with safe staffing levels.
“This is a crisis of this government’s own making. Their failure to face up to it shows that you can’t trust David Cameron with the NHS.”
Cancellations
Figures from NHS England show more than 220 operations a day were cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice during the first three months of 2013, The Observer reported.
While in office Labour completely failed to address the growing pressure on A&E Health Secretary spokesman
On Thursday, fresh evidence revealed as big rise in ambulances being turned away from hospitals. Ahead of an A&E summit organised by the Labour Party, Dr Clare Gerada also warned that stretched GPs are seeing up to 70 patients a day.
“I’m sorry that we cannot deliver the sort of care that patients deserve and need,” she said. “We are trying our best and we are working all hours but it is actually becoming unsafe for my profession to be seeing 60 or 70 patients a day.”
A spokesman for the Health Secretary said: “While in office Labour completely failed to address the growing pressure on A&E. That is why it’s good that Labour have finally admitted that the mistakes they made on integration and out of hours services have created a long standing pressure on A&E which is no longer sustainable.
“However, unless they set out how they will pay for these plans people will rightly assume that their solution will mean the country will have to face more Labour borrowing.”