MP says hospital services are 'at breaking point' as staff say 'they can't keep going like this'

Mr Hill spoke out after the BBC spent four days filming at the University Hospital of North Tees, which treats patients from Hartlepool and East Durham, and revealed the state of the struggling service which he says is at 'breaking point'.

It comes as Foreign Secretary and Cabinet Minister Boris Johnson spoke out over funding for the NHS, which has been reported as facing extreme pressures in recent months, saying and extra £5billion should be spent on the NHS after Brexit.

The BBC report showed one elderly patient who was left on a trolley in a corridor as there was no beds available, and also showed stretched staff telling how distressed they are at the service they are able to provide.

Nurse Leanne Brookes said: "There's not the capacity. We don't have the capacity to safely look after the amount of patients coming through the door."

The piece featured a patient called Blanche, 83, who was having trouble breathing and had been in the corridor for an hour in agony.

Nurse Brookes said: "It's awful, we don't like it. No-one likes patients to be in the corridor, but I physically have no room to put this lady in."

Staff went on to tell how much pressure they're facing and said it can't go on.

Nurse Brookes said: "We are losing a lot of experienced staff because they are becoming burnt out. They are realising they can't keep going like this."

Mr Hill praised staff, saying they 'couldn’t have been more honest or caring', but slammed the Government's management of the NHS in recent years.

He said: "The national disgrace of Government mismanagement and eight years of damage done to our NHS through real terms underfunding hit home.

"The images of people lined up on trolleys waiting for urgent care was bad enough, but what me feel sick to my stomach was the fact that the A&E featured was the one at North Tees and many of those desperately ill patients would have been from Hartlepool.

"Our people are being rushed to one of the top performing units in England to lie in corridors desperate for help.

"The staff couldn’t have been more honest or caring in the film, including the A&E doctors, they really are at breaking point.

"Nationally there are 40 thousand nurse vacancies nation wide and 560 thousand People, like my Hartlepool constituents, still waiting on Trolleys in A& E for over four hours across the UK.

"It is disgusting, inhuman and unacceptable and needs to stop."