A dad who lost his daughter after a six-hour ambulance wait has slammed Keir Starmer’s new 10-year plan for improving the NHS. Mike Phillips, 65, from Rochdale, lost his daughter, Allyson, 33, who was suffering from a sarcoma to sepsis at Fairfield General Hospital in April 2022. The now retired nurse rang 999 multiple times after her condition worsened, knowing that she needed antibiotics urgently. The family had to wait for a second crew to turn up to help move her once the first had arrived, even though he and her fiance volunteered to help.
“Meanwhile, Allyson was getting worse and worse,” Mike told The Express. “I was still a practising nurse at that point, and I could see Allyson deteriorating in front of my eyes. I was desperately, desperately worried. I rang 999 about three times trying to chase up what was happening, and they said she was priority two and they’ll get to her as soon as they can, but it took hours.”
Mr Phillips remained off work for six months after his daughter’s death and, when he went back, he was not there for long. “It convinced me to retire,” he said. “My heart just wasn’t in the job anymore… I’d lost the will to carry on, and I felt powerless to make the difference that I was making.”
The family remain “traumatised” by the loss of Allyson, who had a degree in drama and was “bubbly, intelligent, outgoing and friendly”.
Mr Phillips says the Government’s plan does “nothing to address the crisis in A&E”. He added: “Sadly the latest political changes will do nothing to help to get ambulances into the community and not waiting outside A&E departments.
“As well as prevention of illness, we need the professional staff to care for people. There’s been a mass exodus over the last few years, nothing said [by Keir Starmer] will create staff to fill these spaces.”
Research by UNISON published in April concluded that 68% of ambulance workers reported patients’ health deteriorating during long waits and 5% said people have died in their care because of long delays in being admitted to hospital wards.
The Express has approached Labour and the Government for comment.
Campaigners from Just Treatment placed a bench in memory of loved ones who had passed away amid delays in front of Labour’s HQ in Southwark last Friday.
Sir Keir said the “future already looks better for the NHS”, as he published the Government’s plan to improve the service.
It sets out a series of measures to bring care much closer to people’s homes, thereby reducing the reliance on hospitals and A&E.
The proposals would mean fewer staff working in the NHS than previous projections said were needed, with far more providing care closer to home and fewer working in hospitals.
Key reforms include a greatly enhanced NHS app to give patients more control over their care and more data at their fingertips, new neighbourhood health centres open six days a week and at least 12 hours a day, and new laws on food and alcohol to prevent ill health.
The Prime Minister said: “It’s all down to the foundation we laid this year, all down to the path of renewal that we chose, the decisions made by the Chancellor, by Rachel Reeves, which mean we can invest record amounts in the NHS.”
He added: “I’m not going to stand here and say everything is perfect now, we have a lot more work to do and we will do it.
“But let’s be under no illusions: because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for our NHS.
“And that is the story of this Government in a nutshell.”