Tory A&E crisis hits Croydon

Croydon North MP Steve Reed today raised the shocking case of an elderly Croydon pensioner left for 10 hours on a hospital trolley in Croydon’s A&E. Croydon University Hospital yesterday became one of 14 hospitals across the country to declare a ‘Major Incident’ – the NHS’s most serious level of crisis management.  The NHS is showing the strain of nearly five years of Tory mismanagement and neglect.  The Tory-led Government wasted £3bn on a top-down NHS reorganisation instead of spending the money on extra doctors and nurses to help reduce waiting times.

With an A&E crisis gripping hospitals nationwide Steve Reed MP, alongside many other Labour MPs, took up individual cases with the Tory Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP. Speaking in the House of Commons Steve said:

“One of my constituents, an 80-year-old woman, collapsed at home over the weekend. She had to wait an hour for an ambulance to arrive, and she then waited 10 hours in A&E before being treated by medical staff.  For most of that time she was on a trolley in a corridor.  Will the Secretary of State apologise to my constituent?  Does he not regret wasting billions of pounds on a top-down reorganisation of the health service instead of using the money to fund the additional doctors and nurses who could have treated my constituent and thousands of others like her across the country more quickly?”

Astonishingly Jeremy Hunt refused to apologise and instead said that the NHS was performing well under the Tories and that people should welcome this.

Steve Reed MP said:

“I have nothing but praise and admiration for the hard-working doctors, nurses and staff in our local hospital but nobody, especially not a vulnerable older person, should be left on a trolley in a corridor for 10 hours.  Our NHS was founded to be there whenever we need it to care for us, our parents and children in their hour of need.  But after five years of Tory government the NHS is in crisis, struggling to cope with ambulances queuing outside hospitals and patients left unseen for hours.  The Tories’ shocking complacency was on show for all to see today, and now it’s clearer than ever that our NHS wouldn’t survive another five years of Tory destruction.”