Downing Street has taken emergency action to head off winter pressures in the NHS amid growing fears in government that a healthcare crisis could derail the Tory party’s general election campaign.

The prime minister Boris Johnson has been holding regular meetings at No 10 with the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, as evidence mounts of lengthening delays in treatment caused by shortages of doctors and nurses. In addition, the health secretary Matt Hancock has been seeing Stevens every week, on Monday mornings, to assess how to prevent a deterioration in waiting times at hospitals and GP surgeries.

The Observer has also learned that No 10, in an unprecedented move, has been planning to set up its own NHS “operations unit” as evidence mounts of lack of capacity and increasing waits for patients at A&E departments and on hospital trolleys.

On Saturday the British Medical Association issued a highly critical statement, saying it should not take a general election to prompt the government to act. It also warned that the NHS was now in a “perpetual state of crisis”.

NHS sources said No 10 wanted to have continuous knowledge of where pressure was building up in A&E departments, in cancer care and for routine operations such as hip replacements, cataract removals or hernia repairs. It is thought to be the first time any prime minister has sought to have such direct oversight of the service. “It’s really a form of micro-management,” said an NHS source. Read more

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