The Tories burying their heads in the sand over the winter crisis in our NHS is very troubling, writes deputy leader of Bolton council Linda Thomas

Our jewel in the crown, our precious National Health Service, is in intensive care with a terminal prognosis, so the government’s continuing complacency is staggering and beggars belief.

The government proclaim they have increased NHS funding but ignore the rudimentary fact that as this is a needs-led service with a growing elderly population, with chronic conditions, they are simply not increasing funding enough, or in the correct areas of the health system, where they will be most effective.

There is a complete failure to self-diagnose their obsession with cuts to local authorities which is bleeding this part of the public sector dry and have ultimately brought the care sector overall to the brink. Compounding the problem are the £360m public health cuts. Underfunding of preventative services undermines the government’s very own health agenda and ultimately makes the NHS unsustainable.

The sticking plaster solution over the gaping wound of adult social care is an offer to redistribute £241m of New Homes Bonus from local authorities returning it to them in the guise of a new adult social care support but will in fact mean many local authorities will actually receive less back overall. The £105m extra in the Better Care Fund is again not new money but funding transferred from the already cash-strapped NHS. This is the wrong treatment merely smoke and mirrors and the government is fooling nobody. Adding insult to injury the three per cent each year for two years in additional council tax ring fenced to adult social care again burdens those on the breadline.

As our fragmented underfunded commissioning of health care developed by Andrew Lansley’s five year old health reforms begins to bite this insistence that we bring more health services into the community without pump priming is setting local health professionals and local authorities up to fail.

There is growing dissatisfaction around the country at the sustainability and transformation plan model to deliver without accountability health and care integration and reduce hospital admissions, is gathering pace as again virtually everyone dealing and working in the sector know the baseline funding is inadequate and the impossible is being asked by the government. The public mistrust the motives of the ask as they only interpret it as a cost cutting exercise to reduce the size of hospitals overall.

As the crisis gathers pace with more A&Es  struggling to meet demand the more there is a public outcry for action by Theresa May and her beleaguered health minister. Their refusal to acknowledge the crisis and bury their heads in the sand is very troubling. May needs to stop playing politics swallow her stubborn pride and fund the NHS appropriately before more patients are put at risk left on trolleys in corridors for hours without beds. The government need to get a grip, listen to advice and accept winter pressures are here to stay.