Jamie Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to reports of a major incident at Colchester Hospital, said:

“People in Colchester will be alarmed by these reports. They deserve to know how Ministers will turn this situation around. The Government must make a statement on whether the hospital is safe, has enough staff and if it is providing acceptable care. 

“Minsters have ignored repeated warnings about the chaos in A&E across England and now whole hospitals are being overwhelmed by the pressure. By making it harder to get a GP appointment, pushing elderly care services to the brink of collapse and wasting £3 billion on a top-down reorganisation, this Government has caused a crisis in A&E. 

“Half of nurses say their ward is dangerously understaffed, and more say safety has got worse over the last year than better - which is why Labour has pledged to recruit an extra 20,000.  

“The sad truth is that by causing a crisis in A&E and turning the NHS upside down with a damaging reorganisation, this Government is making care problems more likely, not less.”

Ends