Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, commenting on the latest winter pressures data from NHS England, said:

“The NHS has been stretched to its limits this winter, with wards closed, operations cancelled and treatments delayed. Over 3 million people have had to go to A&E since the start of December and A&E diverts are 86 per cent up on last winter.

“But this week brought further evidence of an NHS recruitment crisis – with 2.7 million breaches of the Government’s agency cap in nine months, applications for nursing degrees driven down 23 per cent and news today that in 2016 only half of junior doctors progressed to specialty training. It will be patients who suffer further as a consequence.

“Theresa May and her ministers simply cannot keep burying their hands in the sand. The Prime Minister’s utter disregard is letting patients and their families down.

“The Government is failing to protect our NHS for the future. Urgent action is required and Labour is calling for a sustainable funding package for health and social care to be brought forward in the March Budget, so that the NHS and its patients never have to go through a winter like this again.”