00:00Why is healthcare such a big issue ahead of the UK election?
00:06Well, the National Health Service, or NHS, is missing many of its targets.
00:12NHS England tracks how many patients wait more than 12 hours for a hospital bed.
00:18There were less than 500 of these cases in the whole of 2014.
00:23But in a single month, January this year, there were nearly 55,000.
00:30Patients are also waiting longer in the accident and emergency department.
00:35NHS England says 95% of patients must be treated, admitted to hospital or transferred within four hours.
00:46But at the start of the year, it achieved that goal just 55% of the time.
00:52Meanwhile, there are problems with ambulances.
00:56They're supposed to take less than 18 minutes to reach a patient in a serious condition.
01:01For example, someone who suffered a stroke.
01:05But just a few months ago, the average response time in that situation was nearly 35 minutes.
01:13The British government is set to spend almost $230 billion on health and social care this year.
01:21That's more than the combined budgets for education and defence.
01:25The government says strikes by workers have made things worse.
01:30But opponents say the UK has failed to invest properly in the sector for over a decade.
01:37British society is also getting older, with half the population now above the age of 40.
01:45More elderly people means more demand for health care.
01:49The country's leaders, whoever they may be, will have to find ways to deal with those challenges.
01:56Because nobody votes for bad health.
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