COLCHESTER General Hospital needs more funding to tackle a worrying rise in patient waiting times.

Martin Goss, the City’s Liberal Democrat candidate for the forthcoming General Election, said: “Latest figures from NHS England have revealed an increase of 6,881 people waiting for treatment in the East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust. And these figures would be even greater but for the incredible work of the NHS staff at the hospital who go above and beyond the call of duty every day.”

The figures revealed some 86,546 patients waiting for treatment in 2023 compared to 79,665 the previous year. Meanwhile, the Office of Budget Responsibility – the organisation which provides the UK Government with independent forecasts – calculated a £3.5billion cut in real terms in Government spending on the NHS for the forthcoming year and a further £1.2billion cut for the next financial year.

Martin Goss added: “As we can clearly see, patients not just here in Colchester but throughout the country are being failed by this Conservative Government. Our hospital serves a massively growing population in the area and yet funding is going down in real terms. The Liberal Democrats will always fight to protect the NHS and its patients. We call on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reverse his NHS spending cuts”