19 January 2024 , 14:15
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Rishi Sunak burst out laughing while being taken to task on the state of the NHS by one of its disgruntled former employees.
The Prime Minister was distracted by a joke from someone in the crowd as he did a high street walkabout on Friday. After he blamed strikes by underpaid staff for a lack of progress on waiting lists, the unidentified ex-health worker said: “But you could stop it all. You could make it all go back to how it used to be...”
The Prime Minister then, astonishingly, burst out laughing. Undeterred, the patient shopper continued: “Well, not literally, but where if you had a problem you could go to the hospital.” An online video of the encounter had made it look as though Mr Sunak was laughing at her but it later emerged his guffaw was at a joke from behind her.
When the woman then said that her daughter had waited for seven hours with an asthma problem, Mr Sunak was ushered away by his team. But he kept talking to her as he walked along, adding: “I’m sorry to hear that.” He then returned to his anti-strike message, saying: “The key thing is that we have resolved all the industrial action in the NHS apart from the junior doctors, who are still not saying yes.” The woman ended the chat in Winchester, Hants, by shaking Sunak’s hand and saying a brief thank you.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said of the PM’s strike inaction: “Sunak has refused to get involved with these negotiations for more than a year, leaving patients with more than a million cancelled operations and appointments, and taxpayers footing a bill of £2billion.”
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
Mr Sunak has also failed to deliver on his pledge to cut NHS waiting lists. The number awaiting treatment stood at 7.6 million in November. Improvements to the waiting list are expected to stall after 113,779 appointments had to be rescheduled due to underpaid junior doctors’ six-day strike action at the start of this month. A&E waiting times have also worsened, with only 69.4% of patients in England seen within four hours in December, down from 69.7% in November and against a target set for March this year of 76%.
Mr Sunak’s unannounced visit to Winchester, and walkabout with local MPs Steve Brine and Flick Drummond, also took in a high street bakery.