Labour is today unveiling the true threat to NHS service standards posed by five more years of the Tories.

Launching Labour’s NHS Week with a new poster, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall will warn that the NHS as we know it will not survive another five years of the Tories.

Labour is also publishing analysis which shows that, if the Tories were given the chance to carry on as they are, services would continue to decline dramatically.

And Labour will warn that Conservative plans to double the pace of spending cuts next year would put our NHS at risk.

On current trends, five more years of the Tories would mean that by 2020 we will see:

·         1.5 million hospital bed days lost every year to delayed discharges.

·         Over 100,000 operations cancelled a year.

·         600,000 people a year waiting longer than four hours on trolleys in A&E.

·         Over 20 million people waiting a week or more for a GP appointment.

·         Over two million a year waiting over four hours in A&E.

·         Almost four million people on the waiting list.

Labour will also show how David Cameron’s record of broken promises since 2010 has left the NHS on life support and that the Tories’ promises on NHS funding, GP access and privatisation cannot be trusted.

Andy Burnham, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“The last five years have proved one of the oldest truths in British politics - you simply cannot trust what the Tories say on the NHS.

“At the last election David Cameron was at pains to pose as a friend of the NHS, making a series of promises, but he has failed to keep those promises and the NHS has gone downhill on his watch.

“Under the Tories it’s got harder and harder to see your GP, A&Es are in crisis and there are now over three million patients on the waiting list. Over half of the hospitals David Cameron promised to protect have either been closed or downgraded or face a threat of closure. This has happened while £3 billion has been wasted on a reorganisation which was fast-tracked fragmentation and privatisation.

“The simple truth is the NHS can’t go through another five years like the five it has just had. Five more years of broken promises, falling standards, cuts and closures.

“The NHS urgently needs a change of course and a Labour Government.”

Ed Balls, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said:

“David Cameron broke his promises on the NHS before and he’ll break his promises again. And there is a double deceit going on here.

“First, the Tories want people to believe that they are not planning cuts to the NHS. But the Tories’ spending plans actually mean doubling the pace of cuts next year.

“In all the OECD countries which have tried to cut spending on this scale, health spending fell by an average of one per cent of GDP.  This is the equivalent to a £7 billion cut to the NHS.

“It is simply dishonest for the Tories to claim they can achieve this scale of spending cuts – double the cuts next year - without putting our NHS at risk.

“Second, David Cameron claims he can somehow give the NHS an extra £8 billion, though not until 2020. But he cannot say where the money is coming from. As Ed Miliband has said, you cannot fund the NHS on an IOU.
 
“In the last ten days Tory Ministers have been asked 60 times where the money is coming from and 60 times they have been totally unable to answer. And David Cameron failed to answer again yesterday.

“We all know David Cameron is a serial offender when it comes to claims at election time. He broke his promises on the NHS, on VAT and on tax credits last time. And he’ll break his promises again.

“Because on top of their extreme spending plans to double the cuts next year, the Tories have made billions of pounds of unfunded commitments in this election. And these unfunded promises will come before the NHS in the queue.
 
“The only party with a fully-funded plan to raise extra revenue for the NHS straight after the election is the Labour Party. There is no extra money for the NHS under the Tory plan and it is dishonest of David Cameron to claim there is.”

Liz Kendall, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said:

“The NHS as we know it cannot survive five more years of the Tories.

“The Tory promises on the NHS cannot be trusted. Another five years of the Tories risks further decline, with millions more facing long waits in A&E, millions more facing long waits to see a GP and ambulance response times for the most serious call-outs rising to an average of over nine minutes.

“This is not the NHS as we know it.

“The choice at this election is between Labour’s better plan and a Tory Party that cannot keep its promises.

“The NHS is on life support – don’t let the Tories pull the plug.”