Boris Johnson has apologised to NHS patients who have suffered a “bad experience” after a four year-old boy with suspected pneumonia had to sleep on a hospital floor for hours.
The prime minister also appeared to try to shift blame for the loss of 15,000 hospital beds away from his Tory party, insisting it was “a new government with a new approach”.
Later, Johnson refused multiple times to look at a photo of Jack Williment-Barr, who was admitted with suspected pneumonia and was pictured asleep on a pile of coats with what appeared to be an oxygen mask at Leeds General Infirmary.
The boy was forced to spend four hours on the floor before enduring another five hours on a trolley before a bed was finally found for him, according to the Mirror.
The PM was invited to look at the photo on ITV reporter Joe Pike’s phone but repeatedly refused, before grabbing Pike’s phone and putting it in his pocket.
After the reporter pointed out what he had done, Johnson eventually looked at the image of Jack, describing it as a “terrible, terrible photo”.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Jack’s story was “absolutely heartbreaking” and showed “how bad it’s got after 10 years of austerity”.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” he added following a speech in London.
It came as the head of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Katherine Henderson, accused NHS England of covering up the true number of patients waiting more than 12 hours in hospital.
Earlier, when asked about four year-old Jack, Johnson told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “Of course I sympathise very much and I apologise to everybody who has a bad experience.
“By and large, I think the NHS do an amazing job and I think that they deserve all praise for the service they provide – but they do need investment and that’s why we’re doing it now.
“But they need investment from a one-nation government that really cares and understands – that’s us that cares and understands – and you need long-term funding.”
Earlier, he was pressed on what he said to people who wait more than 12 hours in A&E for treatment. He replied: “I want everybody to have the best possible experience in the NHS and I have every sympathy with people who don’t.”
He said he believes the NHS on the whole does a “wonderful, wonderful job”, adding: “We need to be putting money in now and move forward as a country.”
Johnson meanwhile said he would “have to find some way of honouring” his promise to lie down in front of bulldozers if work starts at Heathrow on a third runway, which has been approved by parliament but is yet to get the final go-ahead.
“It might be technically difficult to achieve,” he said.
The PM also faced questions about why he put the cost of the HS2 high speed rail project, which the government is reviewing, at “north of £100bn” even though the current estimate is £88bn.
Questioned on why he was using the £100bn figure, he said: “It’s a figure I’ve used many times in the past.”