Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash says: 'Labour is fixing our NHS'

My dad served as a GP in Hartlepool for 33 years, my mum was a midwife, and my gran was a nurse. The NHS truly runs in my DNA.

While the Conservatives only ever cut it and Reform aims to privatise it, it falls to the Labour Party to restore and strengthen it - and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

In the last nine months, the progress has been remarkable.

During the election, we promised two million additional appointments; to date, we have already exceeded that goal with over three million delivered - 3,106,424 elective operations, outpatient appointments, and diagnostic tests to be precise.

We also pledged to recruit 1,000 more GPs by cutting through bureaucratic red tape, and we’ve successfully brought on board 1,500!

Waiting lists have been on a downward trend for six consecutive months.

Thanks to the dedication of NHS staff, over 80% of patients received either the all-clear or a definitive cancer diagnosis within four weeks - the highest proportion on record. In February alone, more than 200,000 individuals were diagnosed or given the all-clear for cancer within 28 days, which is 8,000 more than the previous month.

Waits of over a year have decreased for the ninth month in a row, falling by more than 111,000 since last year. Last month, there were 1.8 million A&E attendances that were admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours - the highest number in six years!

First and foremost, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our incredible NHS staff for their unwavering dedication and hard work. As a nation, we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, but we also owe them fair pay, which is exactly what we are delivering.

Since taking office, Labour has made tough - and sometimes painful - decisions to revitalise our NHS. Fixing this system is no small feat. It requires investment, which is why we have raised some taxes to inject an additional £26 billion into the healthcare system. It also necessitates change, which is why we have abolished NHS England to ensure that more resources reach the frontline.

We will continue to make the difficult decisions necessary to repair our NHS so that every patient receives the support and treatment they deserve.