Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, responding to the House of Commons Health Select Committee’s report into Winter Pressures in A&E departments, said:
“This is another important intervention from the Select Committee who on Monday demolished Jeremy Hunt and Theresa May’s claims that they’ve given the NHS the funds it needs.
“The picture painted by today’s report is one of an NHS and social care system stretched to breaking point with ever increasing demand and an increasing funding shortfall.
“After years of slashing social care and public health budgets the overwhelming pressures are resulting in a worrying decline in performance of major Accident and Emergency departments across England and mean thousands of patients are kept waiting for longer than four hours in A&E. I am particularly concerned by the variation in performance in our A&E departments which is letting patients in vast swathes of the country down.
“The Government’s underfunding of social care is having a devastating knock on effect on performance in our hospitals, and it’s patients who are paying the price for it.”
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