The number of people waiting for treatment on the NHS in England has risen to a new record high of 6.6 million people – up 100,000 in a month with a reported 8,000 people in England having to wait more than two years to start routine hospital treatment.
Analysis from Swindon Labour, reveals there are now 31,698 people on the NHS waiting for treatment at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust compared to 12,725 in 2012.
Publishing the analysis, Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South Swindon, Heidi Alexander, said,
“Waiting lists in Swindon are soaring, and that means – at best – patients are left in pain and in fear for far longer than they should be, and sadly it also means that more and more people are dying whilst waiting for care.
“Even the Conservative leadership candidates admit that 12 years of Tory rule has left the NHS in crisis, but instead of solving the problem they are fighting like rats in a sack. This is backlog Britain, and the truth is the longer the Conservatives are in power the longer patients will wait for care.
“The next Labour government will have to rescue the NHS from the dire state it has been left in by the Conservatives – but we have a plan. We know how hard staff at the Great Western Hospital and the trust have worked over the last few years, and the amazing job they have done on behalf of Swindon residents. Labour will ensure that our health service has the staff, equipment and modern technology to provide the care we need.”
SBC Labour group spokesperson on Adult Social Care, Councillor Ray Ballman, added: “We recently put a motion to council that aims to help reduce local wait times for GP appointments by looking for ways the council can support the local health service. But resources are stretched thin, and we desperately need a government who will put more funding into the health service. The current model will not last, and I worry we will start to see more failures in the system, which is something unacceptable for patients and unfair to the NHS staff who are trying so hard to work with what small amount of funding is made available to them.”
