During an interview with broadcasters in central London on Thursday afternoon, Steve Barclay was told the Conservatives had “plenty of time” to fix the NHS by a visibly angry member of the public. Gesturing in frustration, she said “people have died” while ministers did nothing. Her brief but pointed remarks echo complaints about government drift in the weeks since Boris Johnson announced he would quit No 10 in September – sparking accusations of a “zombie government” and exacerbated by two holidays prime minister since then. The woman, who has not been identified, approached Barkley as he spoke to reporters after being given a tour of an operating theater by surgeons at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Off camera, he was heard asking: “Are you going to do something about the ambulances that are waiting and the people that are dying?” A startled Barclay replied “yes we are”, but was quickly interrupted when she asked the next question: “So, don’t you think 12 years is long enough?” As the camera panned to film their exchange, Barkley attempted to respond, saying “yeah, and we are, we’re getting….” But he was interrupted again by the woman, who told him: “Twelve years. You buggered everything about it! People have died and all you’ve done is nothing.” After the heated interaction, Barclay said “a number of measures have been taken” to reduce ambulance waiting times, including “looking at how we deal with differences in performance” between trusts, spending more money on 111 call centres; and 999 and speeding up people who can leave hospital. “It is an absolute priority for both the Government and NHS England,” Barclay added. Despite his assurances, patients face “frequent and prolonged” waits for ambulances, according to a recent Care Quality Commission report. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. An 87-year-old man earlier this month had to wait 15 hours for an ambulance in a makeshift shelter made from a garden football goal, umbrellas and pieces of tarpaulin after falling. It also found that ambulances were taking almost an hour to reach patients in England who had a suspected stroke or heart attack, more than three times the maximum wait of 18 minutes. All 10 ambulance services were placed on the highest form of alert last month amid heatwave and Covid-related staff absences.
