Jeremy Hunt accidentally admits NHS is facing a winter crisis in tweet attacking Tony Blair

Jeremy Hunt has appeared to admit that there is a winter health crisis in the NHS after numerous interviews where he denied it.

The Health Secretary spent most of Wednesday refusing to say the word “crisis” when referring to the problems in the National Health Service over winter.

However, while responding to Tony Blair’s claim that health professionals were leaving the NHS because of Brexit, Mr Hunt finally used the word – in a tweet.

He wrote: “Tony Blair’s memory is as selective in office as out of office: does he not remember his own regular NHS winter crises?

“Perhaps he was too focused on joining the euro to give his full attention to the NHS…”

The Government is facing increasing pressure to tackle the growing winter crisis in the NHS after delays and cancellations to operations.

Prime Minister Theresa May today apologised for the delays while on a visit to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.

She said she recognised it was “difficult” for somebody who has had their operation postponed and hoped procedures could be rescheduled “as soon as possible”.

Mrs May said: “I know it’s difficult, I know it’s frustrating, I know it’s disappointing for people, and I apologise.”

Mr Hunt also apologised for the cancellations, said: “It is absolutely not what I want.”

He added: “And we recognise that it is better, if you are unfortunately going to have to cancel or postpone some operations, to do it in a planned way, and that’s why this year this independent panel has decided to take this decision.

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“And that, I think, in the end, is better for people.

“Although if you are someone whose operation has been delayed I don’t belittle that for one moment, and indeed I apologise to everyone who that has happened to.”

New figures showed delays in ambulances delivering patients to A&E departments in England have reached their highest level of the winter as hospitals struggle with mounting demands on their services.

A total of 16,900 people were forced to wait for more than 30 minutes to be seen by staff at emergency departments over the Christmas week, up from 11,900 the previous week, including 4,700 delayed for more than an hour.

NHS England’s weekly operational update also showed showed non-emergency calls to the NHS hotline again reached a record high in the week ending December 31.

Calls to the health service’s 111 service shot up 21% on the previous week to 480,400 – the most received in a single week since the hotline was created.

An NHS England spokesman said: “In the light of these pressures, the medical and nursing-led National Emergency Pressures Panel has now enacted, for a time-limited period, the NHS’ Winter Pressures Protocol to free up further staff and beds for patients needing urgent and emergency care.”

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary, said: “The reality is we see hospitals at full capacity, ambulances backed up, cancelled operations and patients waiting for hours on trolleys.

“Instead of burying her head in the sand, Theresa May needs to explain why she has allowed underfunding and cuts to health and social care to continue.”