As we wait for the Health and Social Care Bill to hit the buffers! A reminder of the NHS long waits
From our health correspondent
Under Labour, everyone was given a guarantee to be treated within a maximum of 4 hours of arriving at A&E. Waiting times for treatment also plummeted. Instead of the Tories 18 months, a guarantee was given that no one should wait longer than 18 weeks.
The Tories said that waiting time requirements were “arbitrary Whitehall targets.”
In power they have reintroduced waiting time targets. And official figures show that waiting times have shot up. The number of patients not being treated within the 18 week limit has soared by 43%, to nearly 30,000, since the coalition took office. The number of patients forced to wait at least a year before being treated has rocketed by 217%.
With the Doctors, nurses, patients organisations, trades unions, and even a few Cabinet Ministers as well as the Tory Reform Group all against the bill, we have to ask is this Cameron’s Poll tax!
If you want tp stop the ‘NHS Bill’ write now to Iain Duncan Smith and tell him waht you think of it!