Labour's Sick NHS Scaremongering

This week in my Crawley Observer column, I have written about the NHS and how it is becoming increasingly apparent that scaremongering about the NHS will be a key theme of Labour's general election campaign. This follows their campaigning  failures on the economy, unemployment, the cost of living and freezing utility bills at high levels when they are actually falling. The picture was part of a Labour leaflet delivered last week by the Royal Mail to every home in Crawley. It was generic with no Crawley content so no doubt other Labour target constituencies are receiving it too. This is truly sick and deserves to backfire.


Shameful Labour scaremongering of vulnerable people

"I was pleased to hear from our MP Henry Smith, that Crawley Hospital now has 200 more doctors and nurses than in 2010. Labour downgraded Crawley hospital when last in government so anything to help reverse this is very welcome. My own daughter was born at Crawley Hospital in the late Nineties but Labour’s downgrading means our children and grandchildren can no longer be born in Crawley.

Going forward, we do need to get as much use as possible from Crawley Hospital and the trend since 2010 has been services returning. We now have more resources going into the NHS than ever before with a record number of people accessing NHS services. An example of this is that are now 3,000 more people each day accessing A&E across the country than in the last year of the previous government.

Under the Conservatives, spending on the NHS has been has been protected since 2010. This will continue if the Conservatives are in government after May’s general election. We are also looking to increase access to GP services, especially at weekends. Apart from the obvious convenience for those working Monday-Friday, it cannot be good for our economy if people have to take time off work to see a doctor.

Healthcare and the NHS shouldn’t be political and I don’t like it being a political football. My own view is that we should follow the advice of healthcare professionals and that the two main parties should work together to get a consensus about how to ensure the NHS is sustainable for the future. Unfortunately the Labour party are determined to use scaremongering about the NHS as their main theme for their general election campaign.

This was evident last week when a Labour party leaflet that was delivered by the Royal Mail across Crawley, was virtually all about scaremongering about the NHS. I find it beyond contempt that this Labour leaflet had a mock-up medical bill for NHS patients of “Cancer treatment £30,000 per course” and “Giving birth £19,000”. Sadly, making vulnerable people fearful over something that will never happen is Labour’s underbelly exposed."