Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the King’s Fund’s report on David Cameron’s record on the NHS, said:

“Labour warned David Cameron that his reorganisation would damage the NHS and we now have independent authoritative evidence that that is what has happened.

"People will remember patients, nurses, doctors and midwives lining up in their thousands and pleading with the Government to call it off. But they ploughed on and plunged the NHS into the chaos we see today.

"The vast majority of NHS staff now say that David Cameron’s reorganisation has harmed patient care. The sad truth is that by turning the NHS upside down and causing a crisis in A&E, David Cameron has made care problems more likely, not less.

"The Government should accept Labour’s five point plan to bring A&Es back up to acceptable standards. We will rescue the NHS with a £2.5 billion a year Time to Care fund - on top of Tory spending plans - to fund new staff, including 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs.”