Ealing Labour is appalled by the decade of Tory Mismanagement and broken promises and is calling for a Labour Government to rescue our National Health Service.
At Full Council tonight, we agreed that it’s time for a Labour Government to rescue our NHS.
After 12 years of Tory mismanagement, the NHS is being stretched to breaking point.
Nearly 30,000 people were left waiting for more than 12 hours for emergency care in July and many had to wait an entire day before being seen. 24 hours in A&E was just a tv programme, now it’s the reality for patients under the Conservatives.
Shockingly, there are 7.2 million people on the NHS waiting list in England. This is the highest ever recorded and grew by 100,000 in the last month alone. This is one in every eight people in England.
Locally, we’re feeling the effects of this national crisis. Figures from the NHS reveal that just 73% of people were seen within four hours for emergency care at A&Es in Northwest London and 372 people locally had to wait more than 12 hours to be admitted to accident and emergency.
What cost do these delays have to patients and their families? The anxiety, misery, and risk that this number represents is simply unfathomable.
The Conservatives say that this is a COVID backlog, but this is simply false. At the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, following a decade of Tory mismanagement, there were 4.4 million people on the NHS waiting list in England, then a record high. Nationally, the standard of 92% of people seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016.
The NHS went into the latest wave of Covid infections with the longest waiting list ever, understaffed and overstretched. So, it is no surprise, that we are currently facing the greatest workforce crisis in the history of the NHS with more than 130,000 vacancies and nurse strikes for the first time in the NHS’s long and proud history.
Under the Conservatives, we’re paying more but getting less. By delivering the Real Living Wage to domiciliary care workers, Ealing Labour are supporting our h. Whereas the Government raises taxes on working people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, whilst patients are waiting longer for care.
Ealing Labour saved Ealing’s A&E in 2019, and now we’re working hard in partnership with the NHS to address this crisis during what will be an extremely difficult winter. As outlined in our Council Plan, we will continue to defend Ealing Hospital, our Accident and Emergency department, oppose further cuts and closures of acute services and demand the Government gives the NHS the resources it needs to clear the huge record waiting lists dating from before the pandemic and timely access to GP appointments.
But we know that the way to truly save our NHS is through a Labour Government and its 10- year plan of change and modernisation to recruit more doctors, deliver better access to GPs, ease pressure on A&Es, and ensure better pay, terms and conditions for care workers as the first step towards a National Care Service.
Our residents deserve a better approach. Our residents deserve a government that will fix this crisis. Our residents deserve an NHS that is the envy of the world. And most of all – our residents deserve a Labour government.