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Vote Conservative and your babies will die.

That was the message sent out by Labour as it campaigned in Copeland, Cumbria, in the run-up to last week’s by-election.

Labour leaflets claimed that voting for the Tories would “give them the green light to close our hospital services”, and said that midwives had warned “mothers will die. Babies will die”.

It wasn’t enough to win the seat.

But whether the hysterical tone was justified or not, the NHS really is in trouble.

The NHS recently published figures revealing the dire state of its finances.

Health trusts across the country have gone £886 million over budget in the first nine months of the financial year.

Heart Of England NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Good Hope , Heartlands and Solihull Hospitals, is £13.4 million over budget.

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs City Hospital in Birmingham and Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich, has a deficit of £7.9 million.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Walsall Manor Hospital, had a £16.2 million deficit at the nine month mark.

Those are just some examples.

Hospital trusts have been going into the red for years. But, while there are exceptions, the problem generally gets worse each year.

It’s tempting to look at these figures and wonder what they mean in practice. After all, the hospitals are still there.

But NHS trusts are under pressure to cut spending so that they stay within their budget.

And some MPs fear that this is having a direct impact on patients.

For example, hospitals are supposed to ensure that at least 95 per cent of A&E patients are admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours or less.

At Walsall, just 66 per cent of the most serious patients (known as type 1 patients) are dealt with within four hours. The figure at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust is 78.5 per cent.

A number of MPs have joined forces with bodies such as the Royal College of Nursing to urge the Government to set up a “cross-party NHS and Care Convention” to look at NHS funding.

They include Tories, such as Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy, as well as Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs.

The idea is that the Commission will “examine the future funding requirements of these cherished services and agree a new, long-term settlement to guarantee their sustainability”.

But the message is very clear. The NHS needs a lot more money, which means we all might have to be willing to pay a lot more for it.