JEREMY HUNT became Britain’s longest-serving Health Secretary today despite leaving the NHS "a mess" after more than five years in post.

Since Mr Hunt was appointed five years and 274 days ago, the number of people waiting more than four hours in emergency rooms each month has increased by over 842 per cent.

There are now 1.4 million more people on the NHS waiting list since the beginning of his tenure and the number of people waiting more than two weeks for urgent cancer treatment has more than doubled.

Over 7,000 fewer beds are available now than in 2012, with NHS staff describing how patients are "dying prematurely" in corridors before they can be seen.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said eight years of "relentless Tory austerity" has left our NHS in "a complete financial mess."
 
He said: "NHS providers ended the year with a combined deficit of nearly £1 billion, double what had been predicted.
 
"This is a totally unsustainable situation which cannot be allowed to continue.

“Thanks to the Tories, the NHS is now in a year-round crisis with cancelled operations, ever more vicious privatisation, rationing of treatments, bed reductions and a shortfall of 100,000 staff.

“But all that ministers have offered is infighting and vague commitments to a ‘long-term funding settlement.’ Patients and our heroic staff deserve better."

Mr Ashworth said Labour will offer the NHS "the long-term investment it so desperately needs."

Home Secretary Sajid Javid claimed this morning that he was taking a "fresh look" at the tier two visa cap which is preventing qualified doctors from coming to Britain to work in the NHS.

But Mr Ashworth said: "We don’t need a ‘fresh look,’ we need it sorted. Let trusts get on and recruit internationally and stop blocking medics from coming here to care for our sick."

Mr Hunt has faced a fair share of backlash for his policies during his time.

A new contract for junior doctors in England sparked the biggest doctors’ walkout of NHS history in 2016, with medics concerned about patient safety and the mounting pressure it could place on their working lives and morale.

King's Fund think tank chief executive Chris Ham said years of austerity meant "the dramatic improvements made in health care over the last 20 years are at risk of slipping away."

He said that NHS funding last year will be at one of the lowest rates in its history, as funding growth slowed to 0.4 per cent.

The Health Foundation, the King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust estimated there would be a funding gap of about £20 billion in five years based on spending levels in 2017/18.

Mr Hunt has also faced claims of wanting to privatise parts of the health service. The late Stephen Hawking backed campaigners who took legal action over plans to "Americanise" the NHS earlier this year.

The physicist said he wanted to stop commercial companies being used to run certain services, expressing concern that so-called accountable care organisations were "an attack on the fundamental principles of the NHS."

Labour shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “After almost six years in charge of the NHS Jeremy Hunt has overseen a million more people waiting for treatment, huge staffing shortages and the near collapse of many local A&Es. The health service has been pushed to breaking point by cuts and neglect. If the Tories don’t take action to invest in the NHS and end costly fragmentation then Jeremy Hunt’s tenure will be remembered by patients as a time of failure when waiting lists rocketed and targets were repeatedly missed.”

Mr Hunt also displayed "complete ignorance" when he made comments about abortion time limits after he first took up his post, leading doctors said.

He generated controversy after saying he felt 12 weeks after conception was "the right point" for the limit on abortion, which currently stands at 24 weeks.

Mr Hunt recently turned down Prime Minister Theresa May's offer of the business brief in a Cabinet reshuffle earlier this year, insisting instead on an expanded health and social care role.