Local election campaigns stepped up as Health Foundation report says emergency care in England compares badly to A&Es pre-pandemicThe sister of a headteacher who took her own life after an Ofsted report has accused the government of ignoring a coroner’s findings on her death by failing to change the school inspection regime, Matthew Weaver reports.Good morning. There are just three days of campaigning left before this year’s local elections. In some respects, these are a minor set of local elections. There are no elections in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or London, and there are only about 1,600 council seats being contested. In some years there are more than 8,000 council seats up for grabs in England alone. But the elections have also been described as the most important for a generation, because they are expected to confirm the emergence of Reform UK as a permanent, significant political force. At the very least this would prove that the old, two-party political model is broken, replaced by a four-party system – what the Economist calls a “20-20-20-20” system – Labour, the Tories, Reform UK and the Lib Dems all hovering at around 20% of the vote – or a five-party system, if you include the Greens. Or it could even mean that the Conservative party is on its way out.Our NHS has been stuck in the dark ages — that ends now.By using the latest technology and expanding the NHS app, my government will slash waiting lists, get patients seen faster, and save taxpayers money.Latest data shows 1.5 million appointments have been saved thanks to the government’s accelerated rollout of the NHS app, which helps patients access treatment more conveniently so that it fits around their lives, rather than the other way round.Making sure patients get greater power over how and when they can book their treatments and appointments is at the heart of the government’s plans to end hospital backlogs and improve care through the Plan for Change.This winter saw the NHS in distress. Only 73% of A&E patients were treated within 4 hours, similar to the last two winters, and far below the 95% constitutional standard. The number of people experiencing 12-hour waits before admission reached a new record high. Numbers of A&E diverts and ambulance handover delays were worse than over previous winters …Overall, the conditions this winter, while severe, were similar to those in recent years and not far above what the NHS can normally expect. Attributing operational problems to external factors such as winter illnesses and higher demand risks offering false comfort about the resilience of the health service. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/apr/28/keir-starmer-nhs-kemi-badenoch-nigel-farage-labour-conservatives-local-elections-uk-politics-news-live-updates
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2025-04-28 08:38:00
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Starmer claims tech will take NHS out of ‘dark ages’ as report says A&E care worse than pre-Covid – UK politics live
