Cameron is 'clueless' about pressures in the NHS, Miliband claims amid warnings of 'worst ever winter crisis' Leaders trade blows over claims A&E departments are struggling to cope David Cameron is "clueless" about the winter crisis facing the NHS, Labour leader Ed Miliband claimed today. The two party leaders clashed over warnings that A&E departments across the country are already struggling to cope, with the number of patients waiting up to 12 hours on trolleys almost doubling in two years. Mr Miliband claimed the NHS "isn't safe" in Mr Cameron's hands, and blamed the government's reorganisation for diverting health funding to pay for six-figure pay-offs for managers. Clash: Labour party leader Ed Miliband tore into the government's record on the NHS, claiming David Cameron was 'clueless' about warnings of a new winter crisis Dr Cliff Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, which represents A&E doctors, warned this week: "All the worrying indicators are up already. At Prime Minister's Questions today, Mr Miliband sought to pin the blame on Mr Cameron's government for the NHS's problems. Criticism: Mr Miliband condemned six-figure pay-offs for senior NHS managers at a time when the number of nurses had been cut The Labour leader said: "What the whole country will have had heard today is a Prime Minister complacent about the A&E crisis, and clueless about what is actually happening in the NHS. What the British people know is the NHS is heading into this winter with fewer nurses, a lack of senior A&E doctors and a shortage of beds. He promised he'd protect the NHS, but it's now clear the NHS isn't safe in his hands. He claimed Mr Cameron had broken his promise not to "go back to the days when people had to wait for hours on end in A&E." Mr Miliband added: "Across the medical profession they are saying there is a crisis in A&E departments and we have a Prime Minister saying "crisis, what crisis." How out of touch can he be? In the last year a million waited more than four hours in A&E. A&E waits are up, patients kept waiting on trollies up, delayed discharges up, ambulance response times up. He blamed the coalition's "top-down reorganisation that nobody wanted and nobody voted for." Mr Miliband said 2,300 managers have received six-figure pay-offs, and 2,000 had "been fired, paid off, and then re-hired." "He is giving P45s to nurses and six-figure pay-offs," the Labour leader added. been fired, paid off, and then re-hired? But Mr Cameron insisted that that the number of NHS admisnitraos had been cut by 20,000. We will do everything we can to make sure the NHS continues to perform in the excellent way that he does today. He said the average waiting time in A& is now 50 minutes, compared to 70 minutes under Labour. Mr Cameron contrasted the NHS in England under the coalition to Wales, where Labour is in power. "There won't be a winter crisis in the NHS in Wales where Labour are in control because there is a crisis every day of the week in Wales," he said. They have been running the Welsh health service, they have cut the budget by 8.5 per cent, they haven't met a cancer target since 2008, they haven't met an A&E target since 2009. We are saving £4.5billion by reducing the number of managers in the NHS and for the first time anybody reemployed has to pay back part of the money they were given. That never happened under Labour.