An image that should haunt this Tory government – tents outside A&Es

The last time the Tories ran the NHS, we got used to seeing pictures of people waiting on trolleys in hospital corridors – a result of over a decade of underinvestment. This week, we’ve seen perhaps the first of many pictures which will come to haunt this Tory Government – tents outside A&Es.

This weekend in Norwich, the Ambulance service were forced to erect a tent – usually used for emergencies such as plane crashes – outside the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. This was because between six and 15 emergency vehicles were having to queue outside the A&E for up to three or more hours.

Fortunately no one had to be treated in the tent, but the sight of ambulances queuing up round the block waiting to get people into emergency care is not a new one in Norwich. In the last six months, the N&N, as it’s locally referred to, has missed over half of its weekly A&E waiting time targets. Remember that the Tories already downgraded this from 98% of patients seen within four hours, to 95%.

The A&E waiting time targets published yesterday show that nationally there are over 107,000 more patients waiting over four hours compared to the same period last year. We always overuse statistics, so just remember last time you went to A&E either for yourself or with a loved one and had to wait for emergency help. Over four hours is an eternity when you’re in pain, and can mean the difference between life and death if it’s really serious.

The fact is that David Cameron has not even vaguely lived up to his promise to protect the NHS. Almost 5,000 nursing jobs have been lost since he came to power and £2bn spent on a wasteful reorganisation of the NHS which puts power in the hands of unaccountable GPs.

In Norfolk, the Labour Party has had a partial success in forcing the local ambulance trust to reinstate ambulances which were up for the chop. But the sheer scale and complexity of the changes to services means we are only just starting to see the damage caused by the recklessness of this Government.

Sadly, we must be prepared to see the ghostly spectacle of tents outside A&Es continue unless the Government reverses its frontline cuts and takes urgent action to restore credibility to its waiting time targets.

Jess Asato is Labour’s Candidate for Norwich North