Ministers are under mounting pressure to respond to “intolerable and unsustainable” pressure facing the NHS. Senior doctors described the NHS as on a knife edge, with some A&Es in a “complete state of crisis”.
Labour criticised the government’s management of the health service, while the Liberal Democrats called for Parliament to be recalled early.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he recognised staff were under “tremendous pressure”.But he said the government had offered more resources to the NHS and social care to help services cope.Winter set to be worst for A&E, health leaders warn
Pressure on the NHS is unsustainable, medics warn hospitals are experiencing soaring demand, which experts believe is in part driven by winter illnesses like flu and Covid. Some 13% of hospital beds in England are filled with people with Covid or flu, NHS England figures showed.
In some places, like Shropshire and Gloucestershire, people are being advised to only visit A&E in extreme circumstances. In recent days, a number of hospitals have declared critical incidents suggesting they cannot function as usual due to extraordinary pressure. According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the NHS is facing the worst winter for A&E waits on record. Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said it was “completely inexplicable” that no government ministers had “raised their head or shown their face to say exactly what they are doing to grip this crisis”.
He claimed the NHS was “actively deterring” people from going to A&E “because they are overwhelmed”. “And I think that’s the sense of jeopardy which is frightening so many people across the country,” he told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme. Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “must declare a major incident”.
“This is a national crisis and the country will never forgive the government if they refuse to recall Parliament.”