Stephen Barclay has been accused of passing the buck over the deadly crisis gripping the NHS.
The Health Secretary today blamed it on Covid, the flu and Strep A, despite a decade of Tory underfunding.
Unison union said: “Years of neglect are to blame.”
The Tories were tonight accused of repeatedly ignoring the problems that have left the NHS at breaking point after 13 years of shameful underfunding.
And despite the situation being of No10’s making, Health Secretary Steve Barclay tried to shift the blame on to Covid, flu and Strep A.
It comes as ambulance crews were ordered to leave patients in A&E even if there were no beds, a move branded “unsafe”.
Health chiefs warn patients will be at risk until the Government urgently tackles NHS demand and an exodus of fed-up staff.
Royal College of Nursing general secretary Pat Cullen said: “The Government cannot blame the pandemic and other winter pressures for the unfolding crisis.
“This has been a long time in the making yet the Government has consistently ignored warnings.”
Unison union deputy head of health Helga Pile added: “The Government must stop buckpassing. Years of neglect are to blame. The way to begin fixing this is a boost to NHS pay to stop skilled staff leaving.”
Healthcare consultant Dr Peter Carter, who advises the NHS, said the Tories have been “asleep at the wheel” for a decade. He added: “You’ve got a major crisis. It’s no good people trying to dilute it. You’re now paying for a failure to act on this crisis.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting accused Mr Barclay and Rishi Sunak of hiding away. He said: “Everything’s ‘normal’ in the NHS according to the Government. This breathtaking complacency explains why Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay are nowhere to be seen.”
The Department of Health and Social Care’s weekly media list today showed Mr Barclay had no NHS appearances, but he did emerge for a TV interview.
London Ambulance Service has been told to spend just 45 minutes handing patients over to A&E in a push to get vehicles back on the road, a leaked NHS England email revealed.
It read: “If the patient is clinically stable ambulance clinicians will ensure they are on a hospital trolley or wheelchair/chair and notify the nurse in charge.”
But NHS doctor Rachel Clarke said: “This isn’t safe. Is the proposal merely to pile up more patients in ED corridors?”
The College of Paramedics claims there are “100 or 200 patients who should not be in hospital” but who cannot be discharged due to a lack of social care beds.
Mr Barclay put the crisis down to “a combination of high rates of flu, high levels of Covid, concerns around Strep A”.
But estimates show annual healthcare funding is likely to have increased next year by just 2% in real terms since 2010. It was around 4% up until the Tories got back into power.
The number of patients on NHS waiting lists has grown from 2.5 million in 2010 to a record 7.2 million at the end of October. But the Covid backlog has not helped.
Mr Sunak’s spokesman insisted the PM was “confident we are providing the NHS with the funding it needs”.
