THE LEADER of the Harlow Labour Group has responded to recent footage where a nurse at Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) tells patients at A and E that they may have a thirteen hour wait.

Councillor Chris Vince said: “Like many residents I was shocked and quite scared when video emerged of an A & E nurse at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow informing patients that they could have to wait for up to 13 hours to be seen and that even when they were that there weren’t enough beds.  

First of all I’d like to say that my heart goes out to the nurse in question.  I recently spoke to BBC Essex about the issue but before I did they interviewed an A & E nurse from elsewhere in Essex who said that this is not an uncommon occurrence and that he felt that he was ‘letting down patients’ by having to give them such messages.  However, let me send him and other NHS staff a message myself, this is not your fault, you are not letting down your patients. In fact it is you who have been let down by this government.  A government who, let’s not forget, have wasted billions of pounds on sub standard PPE equipment they got from their mates.

For all the buck passing that the health secretary and also the Conservative MP for Harlow have done on this issue, blaming everyone from the Corona virus to GPs, there is one very simple truth.  In 2010 when they came to power targets for A & E waiting times (95% of people seen within 4 hours) were being consistently met due to the support and funding by the Labour Government.  The first thing the Conservatives did was lower these targets to 90% which they then failed to meet.

As the A & E nurse who was interviewed, and many more who I have spoken to across my ward of Little Parndon and Hare Street, identify this is not an issue which suddenly happened over the past 2 years, it has been a growing problem since the Conservatives came to power.  In 2019 A&E waiting times were already at the highest since records began and a full year before the COVID pandemic.

The local MP continues to parrot a tired series of promises about a new hospital, he’s already used this in two General Election campaigns and announced that funding was secured, but the new hospital has once again been moved backwards.  You have to wonder if it’s ever going to happen.  Even if it does what good is a shiny new hospital if you don’t have enough staff to work in it or the level of funding required for it function properly?

In the meantime, the staff of Princess Alexandra Hospital continue to do their best, working above and beyond the call of duty, with limited resources and inadequate facilities.

The answer to this issue is a change of government.  We need a Labour government which will bring back the nursing bursaries which were scrapped by this Conservative administration.  A Labour government that will show real support and a real injection of funding, not empty platitudes. We desperately need this new hospital which seems to be a constant mirage on the horizon. We need a Labour government that will support and empower our wonderful NHS staff to do the job they love!

The long suffering patients and overworked NHS staff of Harlow deserve nothing less.

Chris Vince