‘My plea to NHS workers is keep and assist us rebuild’

This is a tough time to work in the NHS or be treated by it.

The Mirror published a photo last week of a terminally ill cancer patient lying on the floor in A&E, because there wasn’t a bed for her. These are the scenes NHS staff take home with them at the end of the day. Then they pick up the paper to see Rishi Sunak scapegoating them for his failure.

The risk of a Conservative win on Thursday isn’t just that staff walk out on strike again, but they walk out on the NHS for good. Patients will pay the price.

If Labour win, I will call the Junior Doctors Committee on day one to open negotiations. And we will begin the hard work of turning around the NHS, starting with an extra 40,000 appointments a week. It will cost £1billion, money coming out of the pockets of tax dodgers and into the pockets of NHS staff. We need doctors not dodgers.

Junior doctors today have never worked in an NHS performing well. But senior staff remember what it was like during the last Labour government, with the shortest waits and highest patient satisfaction in history. We did it before and together, we can do it again.

My appeal to NHS staff is: stay in the NHS and help us rebuild it.

My warning to Mirror readers is: change only happens if you vote for it. Don’t wake up on Thursday to a Nightmare On Downing Street with Rishi Sunak walking back into Number 10 for five more years.

Vote for change, vote for the NHS, vote Labour.