Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to NHS England funding plans for specialist services, said:

“NHS England needs to listen carefully to the hundreds of hospital consultants who have today raised serious concerns about funding plans for specialist services. These proposals could put lives at risk and harm patient care.

"The Government wasted £3 billion on an unwanted top-down reorganisation and has made it harder to get a GP appointment, meaning we are seeing queues at GP practices, A&Es are full to bursting and ambulances are backing up waiting to handover their patients.

"It is right to move appropriate services out of hospital, into the home and community setting. That is how we can reduce pressure on hospitals and allow them to deliver the specialist services that need to be done in the hospital.

"Labour has committed to an additional £2.5 billion a year through our Time to Care Fund which will support the service transformation that is needed. Once again, the Government’s short-sighted approach shows why you can’t trust David Cameron with the NHS.”

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