Steve Barclay has been accused of being “part man, part ostrich” for burying his head in the sand on addressing a surge in excess deaths.
Shadow Public Health Minister Andrew Gwynne accused the Government of "denial and buck-passing" as he blasted the Health Secretary for not taking action.
He told the Commons: "There were 50,000 more deaths than we would have otherwise expected in 2022. Excluding the pandemic, that is the worst figure since 1951.
"The Health Secretary - part-man, part-ostrich - says he doesn't accept those figures, but as many as 500 people are dying every week waiting for essential care and we're still getting the same old Tory denial and buck-passing.
"So, will the minister in answering finally take some responsibility, accept the ONS (Office for National Statistics) excess death figure, and recognise the damage that she and her Government are doing to our NHS?"
Health minister Maria Caulfield was heckled by MPs for answering the question by saying she “prefers to deal with facts”
The analysis that found there were 50,000 more deaths used figures from ONS - the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority which reports directly to the parliament.
Ms Caulfield said: “The BMJ has ranked the UK mid-table in Europe for mortality figures, comparable with Italy.
"In fact, Germany has got higher excess deaths at 15.6%, Finland at 20.5% and Poland at 13.3%... Wales in December had the highest number of red calls ever and only 39.5% received a response in eight minutes, the lowest on record."
And she said there are "clinical reasons for excess deaths, not political ones, and perhaps he needs to recognise that fact".
Conservative former minister Esther McVey asked for an "urgent and thorough investigation" linked to excess deaths.
She told the Commons: "The Chief Medical Officer recently warned that current non-Covid excess deaths are being driven in part by patients not getting statins or blood pressure medicines during the pandemic.
"But when looking at the data on statins on openprescribing.net, which is based on monthly NHS prescribing, there appears not to be a drop. So where is the evidence? And if there isn't one, what is causing these excess deaths?
"Will the minister commit to an urgent and thorough investigation on the matter?"
The number of excess deaths registered each week in England and Wales hit its highest total for nearly two years in the week ending January 13.
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