article: More than four million people will be stuck on hospital waiting lists – and a further 20 million unable to get a doctor's appointment within a week if the Tories are re-elected, Labour claimed today. Ed Balls and the shadow health secretary Andy Burnham made the stark warning this morning, warning that the NHS 'cannot survive' another five years of the Tories in government. The Labour frontbenchers, launching a week of Labour attacks on the NHS, said there had been a 'dramatic decline in standards' in the NHS over the past five years. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said if standards continued to decline at the current rate, then by 2020 millions more will face long waits in A&E and long waits to see GPs . He said if standards continued to decline at the current rate then by 2020 millions more will face long waits in A&E and long waits to see GPs. Ambulance response times for the most serious call-outs will rise to over nine minutes, 500,000 fewer older people will receive social care and 600,000 people will be forced to wait for more than four hours on trolleys on A&E, Mr Burnham warned. Labour said the figures were based on the latest official NHS data. In the latest GP-patient Survey, 10.9 per cent of people say they were unable to get an appointment with a GP the last time they tried. This is up from 9.6 per cent in 2012. On this trend, by 2020, 14.8 per cent of people, some 8.4 million people, will be unable to get a GP appointment. A further 14.4 per cent of people are now waiting more than a week for a GP appointment. This is up from 12.0 per cent in 2012. If this trend continues, some 21.7 per cent of people – more than 12.3 million people – will wait a week or more. A further two million a year will be forced to wait over four hours in A&E – up from 1.4million last year and just 350,000 in 2009/10. Shadow  health secretary Andy Burnham said four million people will be stuck on hospital waiting lists – and a further 20 million unable to get a doctor's appointment within a week if the Tories are re-elected . Hospital waiting lists are also set to spike, Labour said. In May 2010, there were 2.57 million people on the English waiting list – but by February this year, this had grown to 3.15million. On this trend, there will be 3.8 million people on the waiting list by May 2020. Labour said more than 100,000 operations will be cancelled in 2020 – up from . Over 27,000 operations will be cancelled every year in 2020 – up from 13,000 in 2010 – with 600,000 a year waiting longer than four hours on trolleys. Nicola Sturgeon today attempted to trump Labour on the NHS with a pledge to increase its budget by more than £8billion . Ambulance call out times are also under growing pressure, Labour said. In April 2011, the average ambulance response time for immediately life-threatening call-outs was 5.30 minutes. By February 2015 response times had risen by 1.6 minutes to 6.91 minutes. If this trend were to continue over the next five years, the average ambulance response time in May 2020 would be 9.12 minutes, an increase of over two thirds on 2010. The Tories said Labour were using the NHS as a political football. A Conservative spokesperson said: 'This marks a new low in Ed Miliband's desperate attempts to weaponise the NHS. His credibility on health is in tatters because he refuses to fund the £8 billion the NHS needs. 'By building a stronger economy, we have protected and improved the NHS with 9,500 more doctors, 6,900 more nurses, and 1.3 million more life-saving operations every year. 'There is only one threat to the future of our NHS and that is the economic chaos of an Ed Miliband-SNP government.' The future of the straining health service has become one of the key battlegrounds of the General Election, with Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledging to find the £8 billion health chiefs say is needed by 2020 to prevent it buckling. Labour has refused to commit to providing the same amount but insists it will do 'what is necessary' and says its £2.5 billion spending plans are the only fully-funded proposals put forward so far. In an election dossier on the NHS, Labour accuse the Tories of having a secret plan for NHS charging. It claims public spending under the Conservatives would drop to levels similar to countries that have greater charging in healthcare, such as Switzerland, Mexico and Chile. At the launch of Labour's week of NHS campaigning, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: 'This is the real face of the Tory Party. They have let the cat out of the bag - five more years of David Cameron means more NHS privatisation and charging. 'It is clear that, just like last time, Cameron's NHS promises have an expiry date of election day stamped on them. He promised no top-down reorganisation and brought forward the biggest-ever top-down reorganisation. If he gets back in, the NHS will be sunk by a toxic mix of cuts and privatisation.' David Cameron and George Osborne, at a campaign event in Crewe this morning, have accused the Labour Party of using the NHS as a political football . Shadow chancellor Ed Balls added: 'David Cameron is a serial offender when it comes to claims at election time. He broke his promises on the NHS, on VAT and on tax credits last time. And he'll break his promises again. 'Because on top of their extreme spending plans to double the cuts next year, the Tories have made billions of pounds of unfunded commitments in this election, including £10 billion of tax cuts and billions of pounds for rail fare freezes and paid time off for public servants to volunteer. 'And these unfunded promises will come before the NHS in the queue.' In a speech to the Scottish Trades Union Congress Mr Miliband will say: 'The Tory plans on the NHS are a double deceit. 'They are not being straight about their extreme plans to double the cuts to public services next year. 'And they are not being straight when they promise to protect the NHS, but cannot say where a penny of additional money will come from. 'This double deceit is a double danger to the NHS. They have extreme spending plans and they can't tell us where the money is coming from. 'David Cameron poses a risk to the very fabric and foundation of our NHS. 'That's why we will fight every day to May 7 to stop a Tory plan that threatens our NHS. 'And it's why we have a different approach. 'A fully funded plan, with a mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million to pay for more nurses and doctors in every part of the United Kingdom.'
highlights: Labour claims NHS 'cannot survive' another 5 years of Tory government .
  Party points to figures showing a decline in standards in the health service .
  It claims if standards continue to drop at the current rate millions  will suffer .
  But the Tories said Labour the warning marked a 'new low' for Labour .
  Claimed Ed Miliband was making good on pledge to 'weaponise' the NHS .
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