The Prime Minister failed to apologise to the family of a woman who died after being told she would have to wait eight hours for an ambulance.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey blasted Rishi Sunak's response as "simply not good enough" after raising the heart-breaking case in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
He told the Commons about an elderly woman Jean, who dialled 999 only to be told it would be an eight-hour wait for an ambulance to arrive.
Jean was forced to drive herself to Eastbourne District General Hospital, where she collapsed in A&E and died an hour later.
Mr Davey, who was told the story by Jean's grieving grandson, asked Mr Sunak to apologise to Jean’s family and all those who have lost loved ones amid a crisis in ambulance services in the South East and across the country.
But the PM dodged the opportunity to say sorry and instead said: "Of course, my thoughts and condolences go to Jean and Jean's family for what's happened. It's absolutely right that we continue to make progress on improving their performance in urgent emergency care."
He added: "We outlined plans to do this just the other month and I'm pleased to say that we are seeing performance improve... and because of the investments we're putting in, in more ambulances, more doctors and nurses and more discharges, I'm confident that we will continue to make progress to getting the care that we all expect and need to see."
In a statement released after PMQs, Mr Davey said: “This heart-breaking case shows the devastating consequences of ambulance delays on patients and their families. My thoughts are with Jean’s family and friends.
“Years of neglect and underinvestment are stretching our local health services to breaking point, but Conservative ministers just don’t seem to get it.
“The Prime Minister should visit Eastbourne General Hospital A&E department to see for himself the true extent of this ambulance crisis. He also owes an apology to every family who has lost a loved one as a result of these dangerous waiting times.
“Today’s response from Rishi Sunak was simply not good enough.”
Doubt has also been cast over Mr Sunak's commitment to invest in more doctors and nurses.
The Treasury is urging the NHS to weaken plans to increase the number of doctors and nurses because it is worried about the costs, according to The Times.
Officials are reportedly trying to remove specific numbers on staff increases from the NHS workforce plan.
Professor Philip Banfield, BMA council chair, said: “A plan for NHS staffing without numbers is no plan at all.
“We have more than 120,000 vacancies in England’s hospitals alone.
“Watering down this long-awaited workforce plan at the 11th hour would be a further sign of the Government firmly burying its head in the sand.
“We urge ministers to do the right thing by staff, patients and the whole NHS and care system.”
He added: "The BMA has repeatedly pushed for a NHS and care workforce plan that is independent, fully-funded and crucially includes numbers of how many doctors, nurses and other staff we actually need now and in the future.
"This was a call not only backed by more than 100 expert health organisations, but one explicitly supported by the now-Chancellor, who even tried to force the previous government to establish this in law. If he were to backtrack on this now that he holds the purse strings, it would be a complete personal betrayal of all NHS and care staff."
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