Jonathan Ashworth – 2021 Comments on NHS Waiting Lists

The comments made by Jonathan Ashworth, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 11 November 2021.

We’ve heard serious warnings from hospital chiefs about the unsustainable pressure the NHS is under. Today we’ve had confirmation of dangerously lengthy waiting times patients are forced to endure and the scale of pressure on overwhelmed A&Es.

The coming winter weeks are set to be the most challenging in history for the NHS. It’s now urgent ministers fix the stalling vaccination programme, resolve the immediate crisis in social care and bring forward a long term plan to recruit the health care staff our NHS now desperately needs, which Rishi Sunak has failed to provide despite imposing a punishing tax rise on working people.