Laura Kuenssberg slammed the Conservatives’ handling of the NHS this morning and asked the health secretary Victoria Atkins if she is “proud” of the huge waiting lists in England.
Rishi Sunak vowed at the start of 2023 to cut NHS waiting lists – but he admitted only in February that his government has failed with that pledge.
On Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC host presented Atkins with a graph showing just how much waiting times have actually increased since the Conservatives took over in 2010.
It shows that even before Covid and before the NHS strikes, the waiting lists for hospital treatment in England were already rising.
Kuenssberg said: “As our viewers can see, since the Conservatives have been in charge, waiting lists have gone up and up and up.
“Are you proud of that?
“Because to many of our viewers, everybody knows in their real life somebody who is waiting, somebody who is in pain.”
The health secretary replied by saying how Covid made waiting times worse, but Kuenssberg hit back: “This was happening before the pandemic!”
The BBC journalist added: “The point is people do not feel reassured by statistics.
“They feel upset that they are waiting longer.
“They feel upset that over a year of many years, many believe the level of healthcare that they can expect to get has declined despite record amounts of cash going in.”
Atkins just said waiting lists have fallen since she got the job in November.
Kuenssberg also pressed the health secretary over GP services and pharmacies.
She said: “Today you’re announcing 100 new GP surgeries.
“But we’ve checked the figures and you’ve shut 450 since 2013, so aren’t you trying to fix your own mistakes?”
Atkins said that government is funding new GP surgeries, refurbishing 150 others and expanding pharmacy services to free up doctor appointments.
But Kuenssberg noted that funding for pharmacies is down a third on 2015 and more than 1,000 of them have shut.
She continued: “In both of these cases, it might be all very well that you’re promising this now but I think it’s going to sound to a lot of people like you’re just trying to unpick the mistakes the Tories have already made.”
She claimed that the Tories are replacing services in the UK which have “disappeared” and added: “Voters know that, they see that in their own communities, so why should they trust the promises you’re making to them now?”
The minister said the Tories have already exceeded their target from the 2019 general election with 62 million GP appointments made in the last year.
Kuenssberg then cornered the minister over Boris Johnson’s previous promise to open 40 new hospitals.
The journalist said only 11 of them would be deemed new hospitals, and only a handful of those have actually opened.
She added: “So why would people believe your promises now when that huge promise that Boris Johnson used to get the crowd to chant, that has not been kept?”
Atkins replied: “That promise was made in 2019, the pandemic hit us pretty much immediately after that.”
She added that they got building as soon as they could, with 18 currently in construction.
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