Liz Truss accepts people are waiting too long for ambulances in PMQ response to county MP

Appearing in her first Prime Minister's Questions since taking office, the new leader of the Conservative Party was asked what was being done to tackle the continuing ambulance crisis, which has repeatedly seen patients across Shropshire left waiting hours for help to arrive.

North Shropshire Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan put the question to the new Prime Minister, asking for the CQC to investigate the current state of the ambulance service.

Responding in her first appearance from the Despatch Box Mrs Truss acknowledged the service was not good enough.

She said that the new health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, was being tasked with resolving the problems.

She said: "People should not have to wait as long as they are for ambulances and my new health secretary is immediately tackling this issue, she's already laid out her priorities and sorting out the ambulance service is one of them."

Mrs Morgan had asked: "During her leadership campaign she said waiting times for ambulances in her rural Norfolk constituency were 'appalling' and in North Shropshire I think many of my constituents would agree with that statement.

"Across Britain waiting hours and hours for an ambulance has become normal but instead of focussing on this problem a leadership fiasco in the Conservatives has seen three health secretaries in three months.

"Will the Prime Minister get a grip on this grave situation and commission the CQC into investigating the causes of and the solutions to the ambulance delays before a service in crisis faces the additional pressures of an oncoming winter?"

Speaking after the exchange, Mrs Morgan again urged an inquiry into the issues.

She said: "Liz Truss now has the chance to start correcting the mistakes her Government has made over the past 12 years but to do so she needs to replace empty words with action.

“That means listening to the Lib Dems, launching the inquiry we’ve called for and fixing the NHS that we all love.

“People are continuing to die waiting for ambulances across Shropshire and the UK – and this is while the NHS is under summer pressure. The winter prospects are bleak.

“The Conservative Party’s decade-long neglect has led to chronic problems across the health system and it’s not fair on the patients and staff who are suffering as a result.”