Piers Morgan confronts PM after his elderly mum spent hours on hospital trolley
Rishi Sunak has admitted that he's failed miserably to keep his promise to slash NHS waiting lists after being challenged by Piers Morgan over his elderly mum's experience.
The TalkTV presenter confronted Mr Sunak over his 79-year-old mother's hospital stay after she had a heart attack, where she waited on a trolley in a hospital corridor for nearly seven hours. He told the PM it was "a scene out of a war zone" during an interview in Downing Street.
Mr Morgan said: “She was put on a trolley in A&E, in a corridor, for nearly seven hours. The heart monitor battery ran out. Nobody fixed it. At one stage, no nurse came for three or four hours.
“There were between, she reckons, 35 and 40 other people on trolleys in the corridors of this A&E, most of them elderly without people. She said old men were begging for bottles to urinate into, others were crying in pain or discomfort. She said it was a scene out of a war zone. And she couldn't believe what she was seeing.”
Rishi Sunak admitted he had failed to deliver on his NHS waiting lists promise (PA)The Prime Minister said the account was "shocking" and that performance in A&E and with ambulance waiting times were "not good enough". It comes over a year after Mr Sunak made cutting the number of patients waiting for NHS treatment one of his five key pledges to Brits.
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Asked about the promise, Mr Sunak said: "We have not made enough progress." Pressed again on whether he had failed on the pledge, he admitted: "Yes, we have."
The backlog of patients waiting for treatment has decreased slightly but remains higher than when the PM made the promise in January 2023. In November - when there was no industrial action - there were 7.61 million outstanding treatments, compared to 7.21 million last January.
Mr Sunak sought to blame striking NHS staff for the backlog, saying: "Yes, and we all know the reasons for that. And what I would say to people is, look, we have invested record amounts in the NHS, more doctors, more nurses, more scanners. All these things mean that the NHS is doing more today than it ever has been. But industrial action has had an impact."
Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, branded his comments "delusional nonsense". She told the Mirror: "This is risible rubbish from Rishi Sunak. Waiting lists have risen for the last decade. The NHS is in crisis due to cuts to essential services, underinvestment, and low pay rates. Patients will recognise the Prime Ministers claims for the delusional nonsense that they are."
Prof Phil Banfield, BMA chair of council, said: “The Prime Minister has finally admitted failure on his waiting lists pledge, but it is disappointing that he still blames everyone else, when it is his government that could unblock progress on the doctors’ disputes in an afternoon.
“The reality is that waiting lists went up by nearly five million between 2010 and 2022, when there were no strikes to blame. Rising waiting lists are a direct consequence of years of government neglect of the health service, the subsequent crisis of understaffing and the failure to recognise and value the expertise and skills of the doctors needed to reverse this incessant decline in capacity.
“Doctors are already working above and beyond. If the Prime Minister just allowed his Health Secretary to make credible pay offers instead of perpetually stalling, doctors would be free to get back to bringing waiting lists down. He cannot abdicate responsibility any longer.”
Patricia Marquis, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Director for England, said: “Rather than blaming strike action for his inability to tackle waiting lists, which have been growing for many years, the prime minister must invest in the nursing workforce to boost staffing levels. Strikes wouldn’t have been needed if nursing staff felt valued with fair pay and safe working conditions."
Unison General Secretary Christina McAnea said: “Ministers have utterly failed the NHS. Waiting lists are out of control. The prime minister should take responsibility for letting patients down so badly. And stop blaming everyone else. The public deserves better. This government must go.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Rishi Sunak has finally admitted what has been blatantly obvious to everyone else for years – the Conservatives have failed on the NHS. Where Sunak has failed, Labour will succeed in getting the NHS back on its feet. We did it before and we will do it again."
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The PM also blamed the pandemic, saying: "We can't escape that... When you shut down the country in the NHS for the best part of two years, that has had an impact on everything since then. And we just have to recognise that reality."
During the interview, Mr Sunak accepted a £1,000 bet that deportation flights to Rwanda will take place before the next general election. The PM is desperately battling to revive his stalled plan which was branded unlawful by the Supreme Court last year. Legislation declaring Rwanda is a safe country is currently making its way through the House of Lords.
He also admitted it is "on the wire" whether he will meet another pledge to grow the economy. However he did meet his target to halve inflation by the end of 2023 when it fell to 4%.
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