Theresa May has lost control of the NHS this winter – Ashworth

“Theresa May has lost control of the NHS
this winter”: Labour reacts to latest performance data

NHS England has today published full year
2016 data for a number of key NHS indicators, including waiting lists,
ambulance response and delayed transfers, which show the health
service stretched to the limits.

The BBC has also published leaked figures
showing January’s A&E performance to be the worst since records started.

Labour said the figures showed Theresa May
was failing patients and renewed calls for the Government to bring
forward extra support for health and social care in the March budget.  

Jon Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health
Secretary, said:

“Theresa May has lost control of the NHS
this winter and patients are paying the price as target after target is missed
and standards of care deteriorate. Thousands more people are waiting for
treatment, people are stuck in hospitals even when they’re well enough to go
home, and key standards on cancer care and ambulance response times are
being missed.

“These are some
of the worst figures we have seen. Experts are saying that standards are being
pushed back fifteen years or more. Behind each of these statistics is a patient
suffering and in unacceptable discomfort. It’s making Theresa May’s utter
disregard for the dire state of the NHS all the more disgraceful.

“The Government has failed the NHS right
across the board. Urgent action is required and Labour is calling for a
sustainable funding package for health and social care to be brought forward in
the March Budget, so that the NHS and its patients never have to go through a
winter like this again.”

Ends