“Theresa May has lost control of the NHS this winter”: Labour reacts to latest performance data

NHS England has today published full year 2016 data for a number of key NHS indicators, including waiting lists, ambulance response and delayed transfers, which show the health service stretched to the limits.

The BBC has also published leaked figures showing January’s A&E performance to be the worst since records started.

Labour said the figures showed Theresa May was failing patients and renewed calls for the Government to bring forward extra support for health and social care in the March budget.  

Jon Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“Theresa May has lost control of the NHS this winter and patients are paying the price as target after target is missed and standards of care deteriorate. Thousands more people are waiting for treatment, people are stuck in hospitals even when they’re well enough to go home, and key standards on cancer care and ambulance response times are being missed.

“These are some of the worst figures we have seen. Experts are saying that standards are being pushed back fifteen years or more. Behind each of these statistics is a patient suffering and in unacceptable discomfort. It’s making Theresa May’s utter disregard for the dire state of the NHS all the more disgraceful.

“The Government has failed the NHS right across the board. 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.”

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