A SHADOW minister spoke of her deep concern about trolley deaths at Worcester hospital and called for urgent investment in social care when she visited the city.

Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, met patients, activists and members of the public at Worcester Guildhall on Saturday.

Thanking the people of Worcester for a warm reception on her first visit to the city, she spoke about the crisis engulfing hospitals, including the city’s Worcestershire Royal Hospital, asking people to sign the 'care for the NHS petition' which calls for extra Government funding for the NHS.

The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington was responding to local calls for a senior figure in the party to join them for Labour’s National Campaign Day on the NHS.

The 63-year-old, who has also served as Shadow Health Secretary, decided to come to Worcester after learning of the problems at the Royal.

She met the leader of Worcester City Council Adrian Gregson and many others, including Sally Wicksteed, 77, of Silverdale Avenue, Worcester, who recently waited eight hours on a trolley in Worcestershire Royal Hospital following complications involving her foot.

Mrs Wicksteed described hospital staff as working hard but said they had been 'overwhelmed'.

Ms Abbott said during her first visit to Worcester: “We have had two deaths on trolleys and a third person who hanged themselves and died. Very recently I have seen reports of ambulances queuing for hours and hours.

“We would put money into social care as a matter of urgency. When Labour was last in power in 1997 we invested in the health service and built new hospitals and we put up salaries. We rebuilt the health service after years of Tory neglect. It looks like we’re going to have to do this again.

“I think they don’t seem to understand the urgency of it. It’s all very well to put the trust into special measures which they’ve done but what the trust really needs is financial support.

"One of the problems is they're reliant on locums rather than permanent staff and being able to recruit the right permanent staff costs money and Jeremy Hunt (the Health Secretary) is not providing that money.

"The Tories are always looking for scapegoats. One minute it’s junior doctors. The next minute it's immigrants. What they don’t want to look at is how they’ve failed the NHS and failed to fund it properly. “

Ms Abbott said she would like the opportunity at a later date to visit Worcestershire Royal Hospital and see the problems for herself, saying that the situation there was very high up the scale of Labour’s priorities together with investing more in social care, including better discharge arrangements for hospital patients.

We reported how 109 emergency patients waited 12 hours or more on trolleys at Worcester and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch between December 20 and January 4 which Ms Abbott said was ‘completely unacceptable’.

She also referred to the deaths as ‘traumatic’ for families, staff and the community in Worcester, arguing that Labour controlled local government was being made to bear the brunt of the cuts.

Senior Conservative MPs including Theresa May have disputed the Red Cross's analysis that the NHS is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

But Ms Abbott said: "If three people die in the space of a month that is a humanitarian crisis bearing in mind we are the fifth largest economy in the world."

Cllr Adrian Gregson, Labour leader of Worcester City Council said: "We're absolutely committed to saving the NHS. We're getting lots of people signing the petition."

Labour councillor Paul Denham said: "Diane Abbott visiting today emphasises just how serious the NHS situation in Worcester and in the wider county is.

"It's great to see so many people in front of the Guildhall today standing up for our NHS locally. The NHS is seriously underfunded and so is social care.

"These two make a toxic cocktail which means local people are not getting the healthcare they need and deserve."