Theresa May rejects claims of ‘humanitarian crisis’ in NHS but admits it faces ‘huge pressures’
Labour has called for the PM to make emergency statement on health service when Parliament returns tomorrow
THERESA May has rejected claims of a "humanitarian crisis" but acknowledged there were "huge pressures" currently facing the NHS.
"I don't accept the description the Red Cross has made of this," the Prime Minister said in an interview with Sky News this morning.
Labour has called for Mrs May or Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to make an emergency statement on the NHS when Parliament returns tomorrow.
It comes after the Red Cross’ warning - a description rejected by NHS England - while the British Medical Association said the Government should be "ashamed" of the situation.
The PM told the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: "Yes there are significant pressures, but we recognise those pressures.
"We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need.
“They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required.
"So funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in."
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Mrs May went on: "There are pressures in the NHS, we see those pressures. We have an ageing population, this brings pressures, particularly in the interface between the health service and social care.
"We have taken some immediate steps in relation to that issue but we are also looking to ensure best practice in the NHS and looking for a long-term solution to what has been a problem that has been ducked by government over the years.
"The NHS is facing the pressures of the ageing population, that is why it is important that it is the NHS that has produced its five-year plan and is now putting that plan into practice."
Mike Adamson chief executive of the Red Cross, said extra cash was needed for health and social care to make the system sustainable.
"The British Red Cross is on the front line, responding to the humanitarian crisis in our hospital and ambulance services across the country," he said.
"We have been called in to support the NHS and help get people home from hospital and free up much-needed beds."
And BMA chairman Dr Mark Porter said: "Given that the NHS was facing the worst winter on record, the unacceptable absence of additional funding for health and social care in the autumn statement has only further exacerbated the crisis.
"We have seen no signs from the PM since taking office that she understands the gravity of the situation the NHS is facing.”
But Keith Willett, director of acute care for NHS England, said "on the international scale of a humanitarian crisis, I do not think the NHS is at that point".
The pressures facing the NHS have been laid bare in recent days, with two patients dying on trolleys in Worcestershire Royal Hospital's accident and emergency department in the last week.
And the latest figures show overflowing A&E departments shut their doors to patients more than 140 times in December.