Tearful NHS workers tell of the struggles they face every day in Labour’s first party political broadcast of 2018.
A variety of health service staff, from GPs and clinicians to emergency responders and nurses, talk about the impact of cuts, staff shortages, increased waiting times and cancelled operations in the short film, which aired for the first time on Wednesday evening.
Paramedic Dave tells of seeing critically ill patients lose their lives due to the delayed arrival of medical help.
“I’ve had people die waiting for am ambulance where I have felt if we had got them to hospital, they would have survived,” he said.
The broadcast, which does not feature any politicians, includes stories from student nurses facing debt issues due to scrapped bursaries, a chef who says her colleagues have to visit foodbanks because they do not earn enough to support themselves and a nurse who is considering leaving the profession she “loves”.
Fionna, a medical registrar, says the hardest part of her job is finding out someone she has been caring for has died.
“It’s even worse when you think that perhaps things could have been different, if only you hadn’t been doing the job of two people.”
She goes on to say Labour, which is campaigning heavily on the health service ahead of May’s local elections, is the only party with “a tangible plan” to save the NHS.
Meanwhile, Theresa May’s government has defended its record, claiming the service is “better prepared than ever before” to deal with the pressures of winter thanks to increased levels of investment.
You can watch the video in full below: