The Yorkshire Post Says: Corbyn plan to throw money at the NHS is sticking plaster solution

Despite the criticism of Jeremy Corbyn, more than nine of 10 patients were seen within the Department of Health’s prescribed four hours last month as hospitals handled more than 500,000 emergency admissions.

That said, it is now two years since 95 per cent of people attending casualty were seen on time – the Government’s stated target – and the fact that the workload last month was the third highest on record does not bode well for the forthcoming winter months when demand for care is usually at its greatest.

It suggests, once again, that not only is the NHS struggling to keep pace with the demands of a growing – and ageing – population, but that well-documented frailties in out-of-hours GP and care services are intensifying the workload of A&E units when medics should be focusing their energy, and expertise, on the more serious cases.

Yet, while Mr Corbyn predictably used these figures to condemn the Government as he returned to the campaign trail in readiness for another election if Theresa May’s premiership implodes, he needs to remember that his promises earlier this year on the abolition of tution fees have been exposed as a sham and that the NHS needs a long-term remedy which is both affordable and apolitical if at all possible.

More public money, Labour’s cure-all for every policy challenge, is just a sticking plaster solution.