BMA demands Government takes immediate action to alleviate NHS pressures

Responding to comments from the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine today, and concerns raised by BMA members, Professor Phil Banfield, chair of BMA council, said: ‘The BMA has repeatedly invited the Government to sit down and talk about the pressures on our health service, but their silence is deafening. It is disingenuous for the Prime Minister to talk about ‘backing the NHS’ in his New Year message, when his own Health Secretary is failing to discuss how this crisis can be fixed.

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‘The Government must step up and take immediate action. Without intervention, waiting lists will continue to grow, patients will continue to suffer, and staff will continue to leave. The future of the NHS is balanced on a knife-edge; it is solely within Government’s gift to pull this back from the brink.’