You may have seen Derriford in the news again this week because of long ambulance waiting times

I know staff at Derriford are doing all they can to help patients. Thank you to everyone from consultants to nurses, porters to paramedics, for stepping up day after day to work for an NHS in crisis. None of the queues or long waiting times at Derriford are the fault of NHS staff.

The truth is, the Conservatives have broken the NHS after 12 years in power. Ambulance queues, rising times for admission, and routine operations delayed – these are all signs of a system that isn’t working.

It could not have been more different in 2010, when the last Labour Government passed on to the Tories an NHS with the highest patient satisfaction ever. The waiting time target for GP appointments was 48 hours under Labour – now the Tories are setting a target of two weeks and failing even to meet that.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Thank you again to all our NHS staff at Derriford and beyond. Like the public, you deserve so much better than what you are getting from Ministers today.

[The views in this statement are my own and not those of the NHS staff pictured above].