Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, commenting on the College of Emergency Medicine’s report on A&E units Stretched to the Limit, said:

 

“This damning report from the most senior emergency doctors in the land demands an urgent response. Jeremy Hunt must act now to ensure all A&Es have enough staff to provide safe care through the winter.

 

“All year, we have warned Jeremy Hunt about the growing crisis in A&E. His failure to grasp the severity and urgency of the problem has left the NHS unprepared and on the brink of the most dangerous winter in years.

 

"Hunt’s response to date has been to blame others, particularly GPs. But this simply won’t do. The NHS needs urgent support not self-serving spin.

 

"Patients and staff can’t go through another year like the one we have just had. The Health Secretary’s failure to deal with the winter A&E crisis led to the first summer A&E crisis in living memory. Hunt must get a grip or go.”