Today in Parliament, I responded to the Government’s announcement of a woefully inadequate funding package for our NHS. Since 2010, the Tory Government have cut over £4bn from NHS investment budgets. This is money which would have been used to replace outdated hospital equipment and provide new facilities.  Analysis suggests that there is a backlog of more than £6bn worth of repairs, much of which poses risks to patients’ safety, whilst upgrade programmes have been consistently delayed.

King’s College Hospital is facing particularly financial difficulties due to the Lib Dem-Tory coalition Government’s disastrous decision to force King’s to take on two additional hospitals. Staff at King’s do an amazing job day in day out providing life saving and life enhancing treatment and care, but the hospital urgently needs capital investment to enable it to meet local needs and overcome the current financial challenges. Today’s announcement does not include a single penny for King’s. Instead the Government once again targeted investment in the marginal seats Boris Johnson will target in a General Election, continuing to ignore our local hospital.