CLEGG ACCUSES LABOUR IN NHS ROW
The coalition will not take any lessons on the NHS from the "party of Mid Staffs", Nick Clegg has claimed in angry Commons exchanges.
The Deputy Prime Minister clashed over the despatch box with Harriet Harman, who re-raised A&E waiting times a week after the issue dominated Prime Minister's Questions.
Labour's deputy leader said: "With more people going to A&E, not least because of the difficulties of getting to see a GP, the average time people spend in A&E has gone up not down, despite what the Prime Minister tried to claim last week.
"Last year nearly a million patients had to wait over four hours... in A&E, the worst year in a decade. Are you, like the Prime Minister last week, just going to deny this or are you going to get the Government to do something about it?"
Mr Clegg, answering at his regular Commons question session, said: "What I find so curious about your line of questioning is this is from the party of Mid Staffs, this is the party which doubled the number of managers, this is the party which refused to commit to the increase of funding - £12.7 billion of extra funding - this Government has put into the NHS.
"And above all it was your government that entered into those outrageous sweetheart deals with the private sector which meant a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers' money was handed over to private sector health providers which didn't help a single NHS patient.
"Of course we need to work hard to support our A&E services, they are under greater pressure than ever before, but cutting the budget, simply employing more managers and not more nurses and handing out sweetheart deals to the private sector, which is Labour's approach, is not the way to do it."
Ms Harman said: "Do you really think the terrible things that happened in Mid Staffs was a representative situation of our fantastic NHS as a whole? Shame on you.
"People will see there is no chance of them sorting the problems in A&E when they are just intent on pretending there isn't a problem. It's the same old story when the Tories are in power - the NHS is undermined and people suffer.
"Do you realise your plan to differentiate your party from the Tories is doomed to fail while you are supporting the Tories on the NHS every step of the way amd smearing the NHS as well?"
Mr Clegg responded: "If your government wasn't responsible for Mid Staffs, which government was? You were in government at the time, the reports made it quite clear it was because of the manic approach to targets that meant health professionals in Mid Staffs and elsewhere were taking such false decisions.
"Do you deny your party still hasn't supported our budget increase for the NHS, do you still deny it was your government when in power that gave these sweetheart deals to the private sector?
"We don't need to take any lectures from you on the NHS."
