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Jeremy Hunt has failed to attend a single crisis meeting on the NHS despite warnings the health service is in “meltdown.”

The Health Secretary skipped all seven gatherings of the Department of Health’s board in the 2015-16 financial year.

All of these took place against the backdrop of the junior doctors’ strike and the controversial introduction of a 7-day NHS.

The high-level meetings review the performance of the NHS and analysis “strategic issues and risks.”

They are also used to “identify the root causes of performance challenges, and develop and implement plans to mitigate risks and improve outcome”.

(Image: Trinity Mirror)

In addition to the Health Secretary, they are usually attended by the chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, senior civil servants and NHS directors.

But the Department of Health’s annual report reveals Mr Hunt was absent for all seven Board meetings.

According to the Annual Report at four of the seven meetings the Board discussed NHS performance and finances, while the other three meetings looked at issues of “strategic importance.”

Explaining Mr Hunt’s absence, it said the “Secretary of State has gained the assurance over the running of the Department through focused meetings on his priorities with senior colleagues from our ALBs (Arms-length bodies).”

Labour said it was “shocking” the Health Secretary did not attend the meetings.

Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders MP said: “It’s a bit rich of Jeremy Hunt to attack junior doctors when he seems to have been on strike himself for the last year.

“While NHS performance is hitting record lows, it is shocking that the Secretary of State can’t even be bothered to turn up to work and sort these serious problems out.

“If he is serious about delivering a seven-day NHS, he could start by at least being a five-day Secretary of State.”

Mr Madders pointed out that on Mr Hunt’s watch hospitals in England are facing record delays in discharging patients, ambulance response targets have been missed for the 14th month in a row and the NHS has failed to meet its A&E targets in every month since July 2015.

A leading doctor warned this week that millions of patients could be “unsafe” in hospitals because of “pockets of meltdown” across the NHS.

Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the resilience of medical units was being “put to the test like never before”.

He cautioned that the NHS may be “pushed to the brink” as a combination of doctors’ strikes, staff shortages and soaring patient demand put hospitals under unprecedented strain.

In a separate intervention the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said the Government would fail to achieve its aim of a full seven-day NHS without more cash. Mr Hopson warned that hospitals are cutting services and the NHS risked “slowly deteriorating” as it did in the 1990s.