Cornwall in the national news again. And not for a good reason. We have amongst the worst ambulance waits in the country. Many patients die unnecessarily. Hundreds more experience life limiting disability because they can’t get the timely treatment which would avoid this.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Proper investment in core NHS services and real workforce planning would have ensured this crisis could be averted.

Official figures show that a patient who could have been saved, dies every working day in Cornwall because of the gridlocked ambulance service.

Successive Conservative Health Ministers have since 2010 failed to heed the warning about the lack of serious workforce planning. Now we’re reaping the consequences. Fragmenting the NHS by allowing private companies to cherry-pick the profitable bits of the NHS does not help either.