Rishi Sunak blamed striking NHS staff for making it “more challenging” to fulfil his promise of bringing down waiting lists during a visit to a London hospital. Shortly after taking questions from the Commons Liaison Committee on Tuesday, the prime minister visited Evelina Children’s Hospital, central London, where he met with staff and served cake to young patients. The NHS Big Tea came ahead of the health service’s 75th anniversary on Wednesday. Mr Sunak said he and the Government were doing “everything we can” to support the NHS and promised that his long-term workforce plan announced last week would make sure they got “a lot more colleagues”. When asked by broadcasters whether the decision by junior doctors to extend strike action until January 2024 would impact on his pledge to cut waiting times, Mr Sunak said: “Clearly, industrial action by other clinical staff does make it more challenging to bring down waiting lists.

Source: The Times July 04, 2023 19:01 UTC