Figures from the NHS show that 159,255 people are waiting for NHS treatment at University Hospitals Trust Birmingham. 30,998 people locally have been waiting for more than a year, during three separate Conservative Health Secretaries.
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. Now, 1 in every 9 people in England are on the NHS waiting list equating to 6.6 million people.
The Conservative Government published its elective care recovery plan for the NHS this week but failed to set out how it would address the workforce shortages the NHS is facing. The plan set the Government’s ambition as beginning to reduce waiting lists from 2024.
Commenting, Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston said:
“I wrote to the health secretary twice following concerns that West Midlands Ambulance Service was close to complete collapse and raising questions regarding NHS services. The response which arrived more than two months later, was woefully lacking; and failed to address how the Government will tackle the root causes to put the NHS back on track.
“Now, record numbers of people in my constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston are waiting longer than ever before, often in pain and distress.
“Our local health care staff worked heroically throughout the pandemic, but they have been stretched like never before and as the Culture Secretary admits, a decade of Conservative mismanagement left the NHS “wanting and inadequate”, and patients are now left to wait too long as a result. Our NHS is crying out for a change in government to give us the fresh start we need.”
Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: “One in every nine people is now waiting for NHS care, and they are waiting longer than ever before.
“Hundreds of thousands of patients have now been waiting for care through three Conservative Health Secretaries. The only discussion of the NHS in the Conservative leadership election seems to be about how much they plan to cut it by. We may have a new Prime Minister in two months’ time, but only a Labour government will give Britain the fresh start it needs.
“Labour will rebuild our NHS with the staff, equipment and modern technology needed to treat patients on time again.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Source: Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times Data 2021-22
Population figure source: ONS Population estimates for the UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2020
Letter to health secretary from Preet Kaur Gill MP: Preet Gill MP describes Health Secretary response to ambulance times as ‘woefully lacking’ (preetkaurgill.co.uk)
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