Labour slams Thérèse Coffey’s NHS plan

The new Health Secretary Thérèse Coffey unveiled her plans to tackle the NHS crisis. The plan includes 7,000 more hospital beds available by this winter, more advanced telephone line systems and a new £500m social care fund.

However, the proposals were criticised by Labour, with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting saying Coffey had a “Sesame Street” approach to politics and that “the Conservatives promising to fix the crisis in the NHS is like the arsonist promising to put out the fire they started”.

Setting out her plans to Parliament, the health secretary said that all those who needed a GP appointment should get one within two weeks and said the Government would be exploring a new avenues to tackle ambulance handover delays.