Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Labour has accused the Government of pushing the NHS to “breaking point” with a lack of funding after the British Red Cross declared a “humanitarian crisis” in the health service.
The charity has dispatched fleets of emergency Land Rovers to help ferry patients home from hospital and free up beds.
It urged the Government to release emergency funds to relieve the situation, with a third of hospital trusts struggling to keep up with patient numbers, according to a tally of alerts last month.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said the Government policy of “systematically underfunding” the NHS was to blame for the crisis, which sees patients “languishing on trolleys and in ambulance queues”.
“The Red Cross being called in to help in our hospitals is just the latest staggering example of how the NHS is now being pushed to breaking point. For the Red Cross to brand the situation a 'humanitarian crisis' should be a badge of shame for government ministers,” he said.
“This winter we are seeing a third of hospitals reporting they need urgent help to cope with the numbers of patients coming through the doors, A&Es have had to turn patients away more than 140 times in December because they couldn't cope and several hospitals have admitted they couldn't offer patients comprehensive care.
“More patients are languishing on trolleys and in ambulance queues. Meanwhile hospitals have been desperately pleading on Twitter for patients to stay away from A&E.
“The stark reality is the NHS is facing a crisis this winter and in need of urgent help from Ministers. It's time Theresa May urgently faced up to her responsibilities and abandoned her policy of systematically underfunding our NHS.”
The warning comes after months of claims that the Government is misleading the public about the amount of money it spends on the NHS.
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has repeatedly claimed that £10 billion extra funding has been announced for the health service.
The Health Select Committee however earlier this year warned that the £10 billion figure “does not, in our view, accurately reflect the impact of the spending review on health expenditure”.
Once inflation and cuts to the wider health budget outside NHS England are taken into account the cash injection was a much smaller £6 billion or £4.5 billion depending on the period looked at, they said.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments