Thank you to those who contacting me about A&E and ambulance waiting times, and I’m particularly sorry to hear from constituents who have had family members impacted by the crisis in our emergency services.

The truth is, after fourteen years of cuts, neglect, and understaffing, our health service is on its knees, and when it comes to ambulance waiting times the statistics continue to go in the wrong direction. The average Category 2 call (for issues such as suspected heart attacks, stroke, and severe chest pain) is currently taking a shocking 45 minutes and 57 seconds to be responded to; up from 38 minutes and 30 seconds in November 2023. The official government target for responding to such calls is 18 minutes, meaning the average wait is now more than double what it should be.

The consequence of that failure could not be more serious – tragically, some people are paying with their lives. And barely a day goes by when we don’t hear another heart-breaking story of a vulnerable elderly person left lying for hours on the floor because an ambulance simply wasn’t available to pick them up.

Having recently accompanied a crew from the London Ambulance Service on a shift, I have seen firsthand the incredible hard work and dedication put in by paramedics in the toughest of circumstances. It’s unacceptable that the Prime Minister’s response seems to be putting his fingers in his ears and telling the British people they’ve never had it so good, while the NHS falls apart around us.

Labour is proud to be the party of the NHS – we created it, and we will always defend it. Last time we were in government, thanks to our management of the economy we were able to raise NHS spending by an average of 6% per year. That’s a far cry from what the Tories have offered over the past thirteen years; a dismal 1% annually during the Coalition era and just 3.3% last year.

Nevertheless, we need to be honest with people that fixing our health service will not be easy, and it won’t happen overnight. Pressures on emergency services do not exist in a vacuum; they are a symptom of failure in other areas of the health service like social care, general practice, diagnostics, and mental health services that mean patients who cannot be seen elsewhere increasingly fall into crisis and end up in the hands of paramedics, competing for their precious time.

But if Labour have the privilege of winning the next general election, our ambition for the NHS will be every bit as big as it was in 1997, when we last had to pick up the pieces of Tory chaos in the NHS. That means reform across the whole system, and not just the sticking plaster approaches of the past fourteen years, to prevent emergencies occurring in the first place so we can relieve pressure in emergency care and bring ambulance waiting times down.

You can read more about Labour’s health mission – one of our five core missions for government – by clicking here, and please know that I will also stand up for an NHS that is there for all those who need it, free at the point of use.