A nursing chief today accused Rishi Sunak of being ‘detached from reality’ after he failed in a speech to offer hope to the crumbling NHS.
In his first major speech as PM, Mr Sunak gave five promises to reboot his crisis-hit Government, including slashing NHS waits.
Mr Sunak admitted patients were not getting the “care they deserve” but blamed Covid backlogs and lack of social care beds keeping patients in hospital.
There was no mention of his party’s decade-long funding squeeze on the NHS.
He said the Government was taking “urgent action” to increase hospital bed capacity and to speed discharges into social cares.
He said the NHS was “working urgently on further plans for A&E and ambulances”.
But under questioning, the PM referred to existing targets for England’s elective care to eliminate waits of over 18 months by April 2023, of over 65 weeks by March 2024, and of a year by March 2025.
A report by the National Audit Office last year said these targets were in jeopardy. The PM resisted mounting calls to allow hospitals to cancel non-urgent cases.
Of elective and emergency care, he said: “My priority is to do both.”
Mr Sunak also snubbed union pay demands. He said the door was “always open” for talks but it is understood that he was referring to next year’s pay review process, not the current disputes.
Pat Cullen, Royal College of Nursing General Secretary, said: “The Prime Minister’s language appeared detached from the reality of what is happening.
“As far as the current NHS situation, it focused on false promise and hollow boasts when practical and urgent measures are required.”
In an open letter to the Government today, Ms Cullen said: “It is disingenuous to insist that these services are adequately resourced... evidence clearly demonstrates that they are at the point of collapse.”
Matthew Taylor, NHS Confederation Chief Executive, said: “NHS leaders are telling us daily that the pressures their staff are facing are becoming truly unbearable.”
Shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan, a hospital doctor for 17 years, said is state now was the “worst I’ve ever seen our NHS”.
Tory MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown acknowledged health workers need “proper pay and conditions”.
In the speech in East London, the PM vowed to crack down on strikes after industrial action hit the NHS, trains and Border Force.
He also insisted he could stop small-boat migrant Channel crossings, cut debt, grow the economy and halve inflation this year.
The Government has overseen a decade of low growth, critics say.
The PM also promised “family hubs” to support parents. Since 2010 the Tories have shut 500 Sure Start centres – which gave parents advice on health, education, childcare and employment.
Mr Sunak had to defend shelving social care reforms, saying the focus should instead be on “immediate pressures”.
