The coalition government is not blame for the latest NHS ‘crisis’

Of all the accusations thrust at the Conservatives by Labour over the NHS in recent weeks, their weakest has been the attempt to blame the Government’s reforms to the NHS for the pressures it is facing.

Some will recall that we have been here before. In winter 2010, waiting times lengthened as the NHS was shaken by a serious flu outbreak. On that occasion, a shortage of critical care beds in the [pre-reform] NHS inherited from Labour meant that huge numbers of operations had to be cancelled. Though the problem was rapidly rectified, that did not stop Labour calling out a ‘crisis’ on the NHS, and blaming the reforms even before they had started.

Four years later – and with the uneventful winters of 2011, 2012 and 2013 in between – Labour has jumped on the (small) dip in A&E performance this time around to try to tell the same story. But they have made no effort to explain why the reforms would be to blame – and probably because they can’t.