Only 81 per cent of patients arriving at accident and emergency in Hastings were treated or admitted within four hours in October 2019, according to figures published by NHS England last week.

That’s well below the official target of 95 per cent of patients attending A&E being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Nationally, the 95 per cent waiting target hasn’t been met since July 2015. Only 83.6 per cent of patients arriving at A&E across England were treated or admitted in four hours in October, the worst-ever performance since a target was introduced in 2004.

Dr Emlyn Jones, a GP in Hollington for 30 years, and now the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Wishing Tree ward (at the May 2020 Borough election) said: “It is shameful that patients in our Borough and further afield are being abandoned, be it waiting for hours for treatment in A&E or for months in pain for routine operations.

“These figures reveal the Conservatives’ dismal record on the NHS. For the past four years the Tories have utterly failed to invest properly in our health service, leaving local hospitals underfunded, overstretched and understaffed.” 

Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Nick Perry added: “Their extreme Brexit would make a dismal situation worse by driving away the EU nurses the NHS desperately needs.

“The Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and invest an extra £35 billion in our NHS through a penny on income tax and develop a national recruitment strategy to ensure we never again suffer shortages of nurses, doctors and other health professionals.”

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