NHS waiting lists in England have hit an all time high – more than 7.5 million people are waiting for care, with a staggering 50,212 waiting at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.

Plymouth Labour’s Cllr Mary Aspinall said it was a “damning milestone in the continuing Conservative management of our NHS”.

“More than 50,212 are waiting for care locally – and truly staggering 7.5 million are now waiting across England. The reality is clear – the longer the Conservatives are in power, the longer people in Plymouth, people with real need, in real pain and discomfort, will wait for care,” said Cllr Aspinall, who is the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care.

“We need a General Election as soon as possible – the Tories are trashing our NHS but Labour has a plan to build an NHS fit for families in our city to rely on.

“That means a health service that is there when people need it, with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers.

“We’d start with one of the greatest workforce expansions our health service has ever seen – fully funded by scrapping the non-dom status.”

What would Labour do?

Labour will create 7,500 more medical school places and 10,000 more nursing and midwifery clinical placements per year.

We will allocate a proportion of the new medical school places in under-doctored areas, to address inequalities in access to healthcare – because one of the strongest indicators of where doctors practice is where they train.

We’ll also train 700 more district nurses each year, 5,000 more health visitors and recruit thousands more mental health staff.

With thousands more staff trained to join the NHS every year, fully funded by scrapping the non-dom tax status, the NHS will have both the doctors and nurses it needs in hospitals and the community-based staff it needs to provide care on people’s doorsteps.