After Ed Miliband challenged David Cameron on the NHS crisis during yesterdays Prime Ministers Questions, Labour released a new video attacking Cameron (see below) and his so-called commitment to the NHS, containing a very cliché dramatic soundtrack, the video reminds voters how much emphasis Cameron put on protecting the NHS before the 2010 general election. It then goes onto reveal the persistent exacerbating problems within the NHS.


Despite the compelling evidence, Cameron has dismissed Miliband’s claim that the NHS accident and emergency (A&E) services in England are undergoing a crisis. During his election campaign, Cameron pledged that “I refuse to go back to the days when people wait for hours in A&E”, but Miliband accused Cameron of breaking this pledge. Although, Cameron has stated waiting times in England have fallen in recent months and later went onto criticise Labour’s handling of the NHS in Wales.

A senior ward consultant raised concerns over A&E units, warning the UK is facing what may be “our worst winter yet” due to a combination of soaring demand, shortage of doctors and “toxic” overcrowding on hospital wards. Although the Prime Minister insisted the government was reaching its goals with regards to significantly lower waiting times and number of emergency consultants up, Miliband added A&E targets had been “missed for 15 consecutive weeks”, and “what the British people know is the NHS is heading into winter with fewer nurses, a lack of senior A&E doctors and a shortage of beds. You promised you would protect the NHS but it’s now clear the NHS isn’t safe in your hands”.

Miliband attacked the coalition for its poor record on staff management; claiming more than 2,000 NHS staff have been made redundant and rehired since 2010. He added: 2,300 health staff received £100,000+ pay-offs since the last general election.

Miliband further added: "and we know why the NHS is failing - your botched reorganisation, the abolition of NHS Direct, cuts to social care and 6,000 fewer nurses. There's only one person responsible for the A&E crisis and that's you.

Cameron said: "We are saving £4.5 billion by reducing the number of managers in our NHS and for the first time anyone re-employed has to pay back part of the money they were given.
"That never happened under Labour. But we don't have to remember the Labour record of the past, we can look at the Labour record in Wales.
"They have been running the Welsh health service, they cut the budget by 8.5%, they haven't met a cancer target since 2008, they haven't met an A&E target since 2009.
"The fact is, you are too weak to stand up to the poor management of the NHS in Wales, just as you are too weak to sack your health secretary."

Leading A&E doctors have warned of a winter crisis in the NHS as official figures reveal a 43% rise in the numbers waiting more than four hours in A&E departments compared with two years ago. NHS statistics reveal a shocking 89% leap in the number of “trolley waits” of 4 to 12 hours when data for September 2013 is compared with September 2011. Cliff Mann, leader of Britain’s A&E doctors, said this winter is slowly shaping up to be the toughest the NHS had ever faced. “All the worrying indicators are up already. And they seem to indicate that this winter will probably be worse than last winter, which was the worst we ever had, a tipping point for the NHS’s delivery of acute care.”

Most recent data available from the NHS:

  • The number waiting longer than four hours in A&E departments in England rose in September this year to 69,268, compared with 48,283 in September 2011, an increase of 43%.
  •  The total waiting more than four hours before admission, transfer or discharge between April and October this year was 513,626, compared with 356,056 in the same period in 2011.
  •  The number waiting more than four hours during a single week in mid-August was higher, at 17,037, than the total during a week in mid-January 2011 (16,479).
  • "Trolley waits" reached 87,186 between April and October, compared with 47,644 over the same period in 2011.
  • Days lost because of delayed discharges or "bed blocking" rose to 75,297 in September this year, against 60,316 in September 2010.