This is an open letter which aims to address some of the concerns people have raised about the NHS recently.
In light of the report by the Red Cross describing the current situation in the NHS as a humanitarian crisis, I want to make it absolutely clear that this Conservative government is fully committed to protecting the NHS. Since 2010 there are 11,400 more doctors and 11,200 more hospital nurses; we have also invested heavily, increasing NHS spending by £10 billion per annum by 2020/1.
As a result of some of these measures, the NHS is coping and performing slightly better than last year, with the service seeing 2500 more patients within the four hour target every day since 2010. Consequently, I think that it is inappropriate of the Red Cross to describe the current situation as a 'humanitarian crisis'; not only is it wrong and unhelpful but also undermines the hard work of those in our NHS. The relentless bombing campaign of citizens in Aleppo is a humanitarian crisis and thus to compare the NHS to something this disastrous is unfair and inappropriate.
It is only right that we applaud the Government's ambition to make a safer, seven day NHS where all are protected.
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