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Labour campaign video features NHS staff warning of funding crisis

New party political broadcast shows paramedics recalling fatal ambulance delays and GPs warning of privatisation threat

Benjamin Kentish
Political Correspondent
Wednesday 17 January 2018 19:34 GMT
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Labour's NHS Broadcast

Labour has released a new party political broadcast focusing on the crisis in the NHS.

The campaign video features NHS staff talking about the difficulties they have encountered in the face of increasing demands on the health system.

The five-minute film includes GPs, hospital doctors, nurses, a paramedic and a hospital chef, among others, talking about the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis.

A paramedic called Dave says: “I’ve had people die waiting for an ambulance where I felt that if we’d got them to hospital, they would have survived.”

Bob, a GP, suggests there is an attempt to destroy public confidence in the NHS in order to pave the way for “conversion to an American-style insurance system”.

A visibly emotional nurse called Danielle then talks about her working conditions and says: “I was more and more feeling like, is this really worth it? Because this is what I love, but it’s not any more, and that’s really hard to say.”

It comes after the Government was forced to apologise over the NHS postponing up to 55,000 non-urgent operations in order to free up resources.

Theresa May said she understood people’s frustrations and promised the procedures would be rescheduled as quickly as possible, but claimed the NHS was better prepared for this year’s winter crisis than it has been previously.

The last part of the Labour film shows NHS workers explaining why they want a government led by Jeremy Corbyn.

“You don’t need to worry if you get a devastating illness and you have no one to look after you, because the NHS will always be there,” says Fionna, a medical registrar.

“If that resonates as strongly with you as it does with me then you’ve got to get out there and fight for it, and the first thing to do is to vote for Labour.”

The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.

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