Emergency NHS care is 'patchy', Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admits

NHS emergency care is "patchy" and has "fallen over in some places", the Health Secretary has admitted.

Jeremy Hunt told Sky News there were "real problems" at some hospitals, including Worcestershire Royal, where it was disclosed last week that two people had died after lengthy waits on hospital trolleys.

The Health Secretary said the NHS had been prepared for winter this year with 3,000 new nurses and 2,000 new doctors, but that this didn't "stop things falling over in one or two places".

However, he robustly rejected comments from the British Red Cross that the health service was facing a "humanitarian crisis" and said it was coping better than last year.

When pushed on patients dying after waiting on trolleys, Mr Hunt said the incidents were being investigated but added: "I'm afraid you do have tragedies in a huge organisation like the NHS."

Mr Hunt said he would be giving a statement to MPs in the House of Commons later on Monday to "put pay to some of the myths".

He said: "We have some of the best care in the world in our hospitals, some of the cancer care, some of the mental health provision, some of the emergency care is bloody brilliant... but it is patchy as you say and what we want is the same high quality of care across the whole system."

The scale of the crisis was underlined on Monday by figures that show a third of health trusts in England have issued alerts for urgent action to help them cope.

Figures last week showed A&E departments across the country had closed their doors to patients 140 times in December.

Speaking to Sky News, shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth called on Mr Hunt to "get a grip" and start "banging on the door" of Downing Street to demand more money for the NHS.

He said the promise of £10bn extra NHS funding repeatedly pledged by Theresa May had been widely discredited, including by her own MPs, and that the Prime Minister was presiding over the "biggest financial squeeze" in NHS history.

Mr Ashworth said descriptions of patients waiting on trolleys in corridors and dying of starvation and dehydration were a "disgrace".

He said: "I really hope that Theresa May or Jeremy Hunt can come to the House of Commons today and tell us what they are going to do to get the NHS through this very severe winter crisis."