THE CONSERVATIVES are ‘failing the NHS’ and ‘wasting taxpayers’ money’, according to the leader of the Lib Dems.
Sir Ed Davey believes the government isn’t doing enough to support its health service. This comes after recent data showed that South Central Ambulance Service staff took 12,889 days off due to poor mental health in 2022.
Speaking during Monday’s visit to Wokingham and Reading, Sir Ed insisted there are not enough staff to manage current workloads.
He added that reliance on expensive agency staff, who are less familiar with the hospitals they are assigned to, was not a sustainable recruitment model.
He said: “I’d like to say to John Redwood, and all these Conservatives, what have you been doing all this time? Why have you been wasting so much taxpayers’ money, and why are you failing our NHS?
“We haven’t got the staff we need because you’re not treating our staff properly, you’re not recruiting them properly, and you’re not retaining them properly.
“Because you’re allowing these private sector agencies to make millions and millions of pounds and getting away with taxpayers money and not providing the service they need, and I’m angry about it.”
The former secretary of state for energy and climate change visited Freely Fruity’s community orchard in Shinfield, before offering his support to local election hopefuls in front of the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
The visit formed part of his national campaign on health, with Sir Ed saying that even lifelong Conservative voters he had spoken to felt “let down” by its party’s healthcare delivery.
“The Conservatives have failed to listen to anybody,” he explained.
“They’ve failed to listen to doctors, they’ve failed to listen to nurses, they’ve failed to listen to the experts, they’ve failed to listen to the public.
“People should not vote Conservative in the next election. If you want to improve our health service you want to send them a message they’ll understand, vote them out – vote these people out.
“They don’t deserve anyone’s support, because they have betrayed the NHS.”
A Freedom of Information request from the Liberal Democrats revealed more than 1,900 staff in the ambulance trust needed time off last year due to mental health problems – the equivalent of 32% of the workforce.
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Wokingham, Clive Jones, said: “These figures are a tragic indictment of the Conservative government’s treatment of ambulance crews, who dedicate their lives to saving the lives of others.
“NHS staff in Berkshire are stretched to breaking point, working long shifts, with few breaks and treating countless patients in ever worsening conditions; it’s no surprise that their physical and mental health are suffering so much.
“They keep working tirelessly to keep us all safe and healthy, yet their poor treatment at the hands of the Government is adding misery for patients across the country.
“We must properly recognise the service of ambulance crews by giving them a fair pay rise, improving working conditions, and recruiting more paramedics so that those who are still in the service know that the cavalry is coming.”
With local elections on the horizon, Sir Ed said he was ‘upbeat’ about public opinion, particularly regarding his party’s response to the cost of living crisis.
The Lib Dems were the first to call for a windfall tax on oil and gas giants profiting from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Of the proposal, he said: “It’s moral that they should pay a proper windfall tax and that be used to help people, businesses and hospitals struggling with their energy bills. Why aren’t the Conservatives doing that properly?
“They’ve got this pathetic, pathetic energy profits levy and John Redwood, what does he do? He says, ‘don’t tax them’, but they should be taxed. These oil and gas giants are making 10s of billions of pounds of profits.
“The flipside is people can’t afford to heat their homes – I don’t know where John Redwood gets his priorities from frankly.”
The Lib Dems are confident of a good showing in May’s local election in Wokingham, a ward which has been under the control of a Lib Dem-led partnership for the past year.
Sir Ed sees it as a prime opportunity for his party to capitalise on, what he believes to be, unprecedented levels of Tory scepticism.
Off the back of his visit to Freely Fruity, Sir Ed was full of praise for its organisers, who he referred to as ‘geniuses’.
“We want to give the credit to the local community for doing this – I think Freely Fruity is the way to go. I’m going to take the idea back to Kingston.”
