Cambridge Labour Parliamentary candidate Daniel Zeichner was on Radio Cambridgeshire again last week, this time talking about the rising numbers of people waiting more than four hours in accident and emergency at Addenbrookes.

Shadow Labour Health Secretary Andy Burnham had highlighted growing waiting times across the country in a Parliamentary debate, and most recent figures available from Addenbrookes show that in March almost 1 in 10 people were waiting more than four hours, with managers anticipating worse to come in April.

Daniel told listeners that by 2009 98% of patients were seen within four hours:

“It took many years of sustained investment by Labour and huge effort by NHS staff to restore the NHS -; it has taken the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats just three years to break it again. At the last election, Andy Burnham warned that unless more resources were transferred to social care there would be significant consequences for the NHS. The Conservatives shamelessly misrepresented that as Labour ‘cutting the NHS’ -; a shallow and ignorant charge repeated by David Cameron this week. In fact Andy Burnham has been proved absolutely right -; without tackling the huge challenges in social care and consequent delayed discharges, our hospitals face a near impossible task.”