NHS crisis: BMA accuses Government of 'trying to hide inconvenient truth'

The Government has been accused of "trying to hide an inconvenient truth" amid a row over claims the NHS is at "breaking point".

The British Medical Association said the number of overnight beds in English hospitals fell by a fifth between 2006 and 2016, delaying admissions and causing operations to be cancelled.

But the Department of Health hit back, disputing some of the key findings of the BMA report, which was based on official statistics.

Officials insisted changes in the way data was recorded meant historical figures could not be compared with the current situation.

Quizzed about this response on Sky News Sunrise, BMA chairman Dr Mark Porter said: "For the Department of Health to try to imply that this is all down to some statistical fluke, it makes one wonder whether in fact they're trying to actually hide an inconvenient truth by changing definitions.

"It's been going on on a long-term trajectory that we've been warning about for many decades."

Dr Porter said earlier: "The UK already has the second lowest number of hospital beds per head in Europe and these figures paint an even bleaker picture of an NHS that is at breaking point."

Labour said the report was a "wake-up call which Theresa May must not ignore", while the Liberal Democrats warned the situation was becoming "intolerable".

The BMA's report said 14.8% of patients spent more than four hours waiting for a bed after going to A&E in November 2016.

In the first week of January, almost three-quarters of trusts had a bed occupancy rate of more than 95% on at least one day.

According to the analysis, in 2000 there were an average of 3.8 beds per 1,000 people, but this had dropped to 2.4 beds by 2015.

But the Department of Health said figures from before 2010-11 included NHS-provided residential care beds and were compiled on an annual basis, while the more recent figures were published quarterly and only included beds under the care of consultants.

A spokesman said: "This analysis is inaccurate, the figures come from two different time periods when the way of counting beds was different, and so they aren't comparable.

"Our hospitals are busier than ever but thanks to the hard work of staff, our performances are still amongst the best in the world.

"We have backed the NHS' own plan for the future with an extra £10bn by 2020."

The BMA said the figures in the report had been adjusted to exclude geriatric beds and that even the current method of collecting data shows a decline in bed numbers.