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Health unions are joining forces to make a desperate plea to Jeremy Hunt to give the NHS an emergency funding boost.

In an unprecedented joint letter, the heads of 12 major trade unions make an urgent appeal to the Health Secretary to reverse Tory cuts and give the health service the money it needs.

They say this year’s “acute” winter crisis is the result of “years of cuts to services and wages, and damaging staff shortages”.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

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Leaders tell Mr Hunt the £1.6billion extra in November’s Budget came “far too late” and the NHS is kept going only through the dedication of more than one million workers.

These staff are working in “an overstretched service, for declining wages and under incredibly difficult conditions,” the letter states.

Its sig­­natories in­­­­clude TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis and Unite’s general secretary Len McCluskey.

Mr Prentis said: “This, and every other winter, lays bare the huge pressures staff are under. There aren’t enough of them, nor the resources to care for patients properly. The Government must come up with the cash the NHS urgently needs and deserves.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror)

Ms O’Grady said: “No one knows the NHS better than the people who work in it. And the message is clear – intolerable funding pressures are putting patients at risk and damaging services.

“When over a million NHS workers speak out, ministers should listen.”

Last night, former health secretary Lord Lansley called on the Government to give the service more cash. He said: “The level of funding per year needs to increase by 4% as a minimum.

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror)

“It would in the NHS’ interest for us to set something like 8% of GDP as a benchmark.”

The unions’ letter comes after trade body NHS Providers warned last week the service cannot deliver required levels of care with its current funding.

More than 5,000 people waited more than an hour to be seen at A&Es in England in the first week of the year. Hospitals have been ordered to postpone all elective operations till February, with at least 55,000 deferred.

It comes as a report by analysts LaingBuisson found that 929 care homes have shut in the past decade. John Appleby, of Nuffield Trust, said “funding pressures on local authorities [are] making it increasingly difficult for the NHS to deliver high-quality care.”

'Stop and listen to the people that know the NHS best' To Jeremy Hunt, "We’re appealing to you on behalf of more than a million NHS employees – working across the whole of the health service. The NHS is in the depths of an acute winter health crisis. Patients are stranded, treated, and sometimes dying on trolleys in corridors because wards are so overcrowded. Ambulances are queuing outside hospitals because crews are unable to hand over patients to under pressure emergency staff. But the sad thing is this crisis isn’t a one off. It’s the direct impact of decisions from your department and by your government. The result of years of cuts to services and wages, and damaging staff shortages. The extra resources for the NHS in November’s Budget came far too late and weren’t nearly enough. The impending flu epidemic is of course added pressure, but it masks the biggest threat facing the NHS. It simply doesn’t have enough staff. Despite the incredible strain the NHS is under, it’s still treasured by the British people. Still a concern for them. More than an institution, the NHS is an ideal they hold dear. That is thanks to those who work in it. Who continue to work in an overstretched service, for declining wages and under incredibly difficult conditions. Many health employees could earn more working elsewhere. Yet they stay, often way beyond the end of their shifts, to hold the NHS together so it can treat everyone who’s ill or in pain. This winter crisis will give the NHS a hangover that lasts all year long. But it doesn’t have to be like this. It’s not too late. Stop and listen to the people that know the NHS best. Who see with their own eyes every day how bad things have got. Fund it better and do so now, for all our sakes." Signed, -Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, TUC -Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON -Chris Cox, Director of Membership Relations, Royal College of Nursing -Dr Chaand Nagpaul CBE, Council Chair, BMA -Len McCluskey, General Secretary, Unite the union -Tim Roache, General Secretary, GMB -Claire Sullivan, Director of Employment Relations and Union Services, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy -Gill Walton, General Secretary and Chief Executive, Royal College of Midwives -Richard Evans, CEO Society of Radiographers -Steve Jamieson, Chief Executive, Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists -Andy Burman, General Secretary and CEO, British Dietetic Association -Prof Ross Welch, President of Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association

Our care is worse now say voters

EXCLUSIVE by Mikey Smith

(Image: PA Archive)

Half of NHS patients believe their care has got worse under the Tories, a new poll has found.

Previous polls have revealed Brits were unhappy with the way the Conservative Party have managed the health service.

But new figures revealed today represent the first time patients have been polled on their care since decision to cancel 55,000 appointments amid an unprecedented winter crisis in A&E departments.

Beleaguered Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was forced to apologise for the cancelled operations just days before he managed to cling on to his job in Theresa May’s shambolic reshuffle.

Of 1,000 people surveyed by ComRes for the Daily Mirror, a majority (54%)

(Image: Daily Mirror)

say that the NHS has got worse under the Conservatives, with a tiny minority (4%) saying that it has got better.

Even among Tory voters, just 10% said they believed their care had improved in the seven years the Health Service has been run by the Conservative Party.

And the only age group who are more likely to say that there has been no change rather than it getting worse are those aged over 65.

Three in five (58%) say that they would be willing to pay more in taxes to fund the NHS if that money was specifically ring fenced for health.

Importantly for the Government this includes half (51%) of those who say that they would vote Conservative if there were an election now.

A majority of voters for every party, every region and every social group and age bracket responded positively to the suggestion.