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During their 14 years out of government, the Labour party relentlessly weaponized and talked down our National Health Service while making false claims for political gain. I recall Labour scaremongering such as the ‘Conservatives would privatise the NHS’, ‘will charge for operations’, and that we were cutting funding, when of course funding went up every year.

I also remember at several general elections that there was ’24 hours to save the NHS’ and I recall the 2023 local elections in Crawley, when a ‘pledge’ from every Labour candidate on their leaflets was to improve access to GP appointments in Crawley, which they’ve stayed silent about ever since. Funny that isn’t it?

Personally, I prefer taking an honest approach and to take the politics out of healthcare, while advocating what works best, guided by professionals in the field. There are challenges in providing good healthcare and for many years, our NHS has been dealing with an ever-increasing workload. Our population is growing and ageing, resulting in more people beings treated by the NHS each year. The Covid pandemic resulted in more people living with long-term health conditions and a large increase in waiting lists.

The NHS has pressures every winter, but they are more acute this year, with winter viruses having a bad impact. The day before New Year’s Eve, the NHS in Wales declared a critical incident. Not everyone is aware that the NHS in Wales is run by the Welsh Government, not the UK Government. The Welsh Government has been Labour led for decades so for anyone wishing to apportion political blame, it cannot be levied at the previous UK Conservative Government.

Cllr Duncan Crow - Conservative Group Leader at Crawley Borough Council

Unfortunately, more NHS Trusts and hospitals then subsequently declared critical incidents. Last Thursday 2 January, East Surrey Hospital in Redhill made the same declaration and I also personally heard about long waits on trolleys for patients in the corridors. As they work hard this winter, the NHS and those working for it are worthy of our support, but for cynically politicising our NHS when the challenges were real all along, Labour are most unworthy of our support.

Cllr Duncan Crow: NHS winter struggles are worse this year