In 2014 the NHS experienced not just a winter crisis, but a spring, summer, autumn crisis as well, with hospitals reaching capacity during the summer months, well before the seasonal spike in demand kicked in.
It's being called a winter crisis, but the summer of 2014 was the most difficult I have seen in my career; winter is only making matters that little bit worse – and so far, we are lucky that there has not been a big spike in influenza cases.
The worrying signs of faltering NHS performance in key areas, contained in the latest statistics for how the service in England did in October, have renewed concerns it is facing a potentially very difficult "winter crisis" worse than the one that last year forced many hospitals to declare major incidents because they could not cope.
Less than a week after the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, promised another £300m to ease pressure on A&E services – hoping to stave off a winter crisis in the runup to next May's general election – today's report argues that no politician of any major party has begun to address the reality of the funding gap precipitated by rising demand and declining resources.
Killer facts No contest Selecting for the best Testing times Missiles over the moors No winter crisis shock Reprints Related items National Health Service: No winter crisis shockJan 18th 2001Ministers hope that failing hospitals will be chastised into improvement by the publication of performance indicators, and that the question of choice will be made redundant by universal excellence.
The move comes amid growing government fears that this winter crisis to set to be worse than at any time in the past five years because of staff shortages caused by a clampdown on expensive agency staff.
He predicted a winter crisis.
Winter crisis followed by emergency bailout.
The NHS has risen to the top of voters' concerns amid the winter crisis in accident and emergency departments.
As winter crisis succeeds winter crisis, and the rightwing press stokes up hysteria about the NHS, we can no longer depend on a stable cross-party defence of the biggest postwar achievement of British politics.
