Labour ministers slam rising NHS waiting times


12:36 pm - April 20th 2011

by Sunny Hundal    


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Update: Labour shadow health secretary John Healey has also sent us a comment on rising NHS waiting times:

This independent report will further add to people’s concerns that the NHS is slipping backwards again under David Cameron.

Front-line staff and managers are massively distracted by David Cameron’s top-down reorganisation of the health service, and the signs of strain are now there for all to see.

So much for Mr Cameron’s pledge to ‘protect’ the NHS.”

Diane Abbott MP, shadow minister for health, earlier sent Liberal Conspiracy a statement slamming the jump in waiting times, highlighted by today’s NHS report by King’s Fund.

She said:

Alarm bells will be ringing with the publication of this report. The report makes clear that hospital waiting times have hit their highest level in three years because of the strain being put on the NHS by David Cameron and Andrew Lansley’s car-crash NHS reorganisation.

Waiting times are soaring and many of the GPs I meet are already facing offering a reduced service to patients.

David Cameron has turned Labour’s concrete target that 90 per cent of patients would be treated within 18 weeks of referral to hospital into a vague commitment.

The message from this report is clear: you cannot trust the Tories with the NHS. Under this Tory-led government, the NHS is descending into chaos, services are slipping backwards and patient care is being put at risk.

The King’s Fund report showed that 18-week waiting times are moving upwards, in the graph below.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Bradley

I thought I’d provide a link to this article to provide a bit of context on the waiting times debate. It’s from a group of doctors who express concerns over the negative impact of focusing on waiting times:

“They argue that while the NHS has succeeded in reducing waiting times for pre-planned operations in recent years, this has come “at the cost of relative neglect of the needs of the patients admitted as emergencies”.

Often, those in greatest need are having their surgery “squeezed in at the end of the day”, they say. “Surgeons know the service could be much better,” they write. Cutting waiting times became a priority for the NHS after Labour came to power in 1997 with a pledge to take 100,000 patients off the waiting lists.

In today’s letter, the doctors write: “In many surgical departments the on-call team is not freed from other commitments and has elective operating lists and clinics, leaving emergency patients to be squeezed in at the end of the day.” ”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8433665/Sickest-patients-are-being-neglected-as-doctors-focus-on-waiting-list-targets.html

2. johnPReid

Let’s hope no finnish nurses are working in tory constitunecies who are blonde, even thoguh brunette ius the natural colour of fininsh women, as that would be racist

3. Daddy Mama

Who cares what she thinks? She’s shown herself time and time again to be an English hating, commie, Islamic apologist.

She has no views of any worth because of that.

4. Richard Blogger

@1. Bradley

I thought I’d provide a link to this article to provide a bit of context on the waiting times debate. It’s from a group of doctors who express concerns over the negative impact of focusing on waiting times:

Of course the point of the letter is either/or in the context of ruthless cuts in NHS funding: do we deal with emergencies or do we let people with non-life threatening conditions languish in pain on the waiting lists?

Well it should not be an either/or case, we should have both and that means not making these unprecedented cuts in NHS funding.

To put this in context, the NHS now treats conditions like cataracts and knee and hip operations as being optional. They are not life threatening conditions and so the government’s attitude is that people who suffer them should be thankful that they have not got anything worse and keep quiet while they wait months (or going on the Tories reputation on NHS waiting times, years) for treatment.

Or, of course, you can always jump the waiting list and pay for the treatment from the private sector.

I don’t think I ever heard Cameron say at the 2010 election that his plan for the NHS was for people to pay for cataracts, hips and knee ops, but that is where we are heading.

5. Skooter

@3 daddy mama

Some nice ballanced views there? The Tory right is alive and well!


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  2. sunny hundal

    Labour's health minister Diane Abbott @HackneyAbbott slams jump in waiting times in a statement to @Libcon http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  3. Ellie Mae O'Hagan

    Good stuff from @hackneyabbott on @libcon! http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  4. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @libcon2011Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  5. Ben Cadwallader

    RT @libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  6. K Halldearn

    “@libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://t.co/Nrub5Y7” #nhs #nurse

  7. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @MissEllieMae2011Good stuff from @hackneyabbott on @libcon! http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  8. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @caddymation2011RT @libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  9. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @khalldearn2011“@libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://t.co/Nrub5Y7” #nhs #nurse

  10. John Symons

    RT @khalldearn: “@libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://t.co/Nrub5Y7” #nhs #nurse

  11. sunny hundal

    "Cameron has turned Labour’s target that 90% of patients would be treated within 18 weeks… into a vague commitment." http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  12. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @Nonamesleft9992011RT @khalldearn: “@libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://t.co/Nrub5Y7” #nhs #nurse

  13. NHS graph that could spell doom for govt | Liberal Conspiracy

    […] Diane Abbott MP has slammed the jump in waiting […]

  14. Iain MacDonald

    RT @libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  15. sunny hundal

    Shadow health secretary John Healey has also released a statement slamming rise in NHS waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  16. Vijay Singh Riyait

    RT @sunny_hundal: Shadow health secretary John Healey has also released a statement slamming rise in NHS waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  17. salardeen

    RT @sunny_hundal: Shadow health secretary John Healey has also released a statement slamming rise in NHS waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  18. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @politicsinbrum2011RT @libcon: Diane Abbott slams jump in waiting times http://bit.ly/htZ0nG

  19. Wyre Forest Labour

    Labour ministers slam rising NHS waiting times http://t.co/lGsmfqS

  20. Wyre Forest Agenda

    RT @WyreForestLab: Labour ministers slam rising NHS waiting times http://t.co/lGsmfqS

  21. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @WyreForest2011RT @WyreForestLab: Labour ministers slam rising NHS waiting times http://t.co/lGsmfqS

  22. Abbott4leader

    http://www.DianeAbbott.tk RT @WyreForestLab2011Labour ministers slam rising NHS waiting times http://t.co/lGsmfqS





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