The Government has ignored the warning signs and neglected our NHS this Winter



Today’s statistics show the NHS is in crisis in the North West with hundreds of patients waiting in ambulances outside hospitals for over an hour and hospitals running out of beds. These figures show a health service that cannot cope with a surge in demand, even when it is predicted in advance.



Labour analysis shows:



· Between Christmas and New Year (25th-31st December) 2726 patients were left waiting longer than 30 minutes in ambulances outside A&E departments in the North West.

· Bolton NHS Trust hospitals were at 100% capacity for 4 days over the Christmas week.

· Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh, East Cheshire, Southport and Ormskirk, Tameside and Glossop, Morecambe Bay and Wirral NHS Trusts all hit 100% capacity at for one day over the Christmas week.



Justin Madders, Shadow Health Minister and MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, said:



“Across the North West, just like the rest of the country, we are hearing of countless tales of hard working NHS staff being pushed to the limit. This is bad news for them and for the patients who are waiting longer and longer to see someone or having their surgery postponed to a later date.



“This Government have had ample warnings about the need to prepare properly for this Winter but their response has been weak, half-hearted and inadequately funded. After eight years of Tory negligence in the NHS we desperately need a Labour Government to turn things round.”



Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, said:



"These figures reveal the shocking scale of the crisis in our NHS this winter. Over 75,000 patients have been left languishing in the back of ambulances this winter, something the Government should be deeply ashamed of.



“Labour and clinicians have warned Ministers for months to prepare for this winter, but concerns were casually dismissed out of hand. Theresa May’s boast that the NHS is the best prepared it’s ever been has now been entirely discredited.



“The truth is we are now approaching the 8th year of desperate underfunding and cuts to our health and social care services by the Tories. We've seen thousands of beds cut from the NHS and the numbers of days lost to delayed discharge are up by 50% since 2010.



“The NHS is being pushed to the brink under Theresa May and it is patients suffering as a consequence.”