Jamie Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to briefing ahead of Jeremy Hunt’s speech on patient safety today, said:

“The vast majority of NHS staff say David Cameron’s NHS reorganisation is harming patient care. They warned him of the risks his reorganisation posed to the NHS, but he refused to listen and ploughed on regardless.

“The Tory-led Government is failing to learn the lessons of the Francis Review - having handed out P45s to thousands of nurses and frontline staff. More than half of nurses now say their ward is dangerously understaffed, and more believe patient safety has got worse over the last year than better.

“The truth is that by wasting £3bn on a damaging reorganisation and causing a crisis in A&E, David Cameron is making care problems more likely, not less.”