560k more left waiting in A&E units
667% INCREASE UNDER TORIES
NEARLY 560,000 more patients waited on A&E trolleys for hospital beds last year than in 2010.
Labour says stats show 641,963 people were left waiting – a rise of 667 per cent compared to the 83,743 when the Tories took power eight years ago.
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The state of the NHS under the Tories is a total disgrace. They don’t even have a plan to get waiting times in hospitals back under control.”
Theresa May’s new ten-year plan for NHS, promising it £20billion more by 2023, received a lukewarm reception.
Health unions pointed out one in 11 posts are vacant and the NHS needs 40,000 more nurses. Senior doctors warn hospitals are facing a “nigh-on impossible task”.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said targets for 95 per cent of A&E patients to be dealt with within four hours may need changing.
Labour pledges to increase NHS funding when in power.