LABOUR leader Ed Miliband unveiled a blueprint plan to 'rescue' the NHS, in Trafford today.

A packed audience gathered at Sale's Life Centre, as Mr Miliband made a keynote speech, in which he said a Labour government would spend £2.5 billion on reversing the damage done by the Tories over the past five years.

It was no coincidence, that the Labour leader chose Trafford to help launch the new ten year plan, in a borough where the first NHS hospital was opened in 1948.

He told the assembled audience that his new government would build an NHS which would provide 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs.

He said his aim was to create a more joined up service from home to hospital, guaranteeing GP appointments within 48 hours and cancer tests within one week.

The new measures would include integrating care, placing a new emphasis on prevention, and ensuring better access to services - so patients did not end up in hospital unless they needed it.

Other measure would include ending the neglect in mental health and restoring the right values to the NHS.

Mr Miliband said: "We all have our own memories of the NHS. The place our children were born; where we got better when we were sick; where our parents and grandparents were cared for when they got old.

"But our NHS cannot just simply become a memory.

"I believe this truth more than any other: the NHS wasn’t just the right principle for our grandparents’ generation, it is the right principle for our grandchildren's generation too."

“One of our country’s most precious institution faces its most perilous moment in a generation. The future of our NHS is at stake in this general election.”

After the presentation Mr Miliband told The Messenger why he had decided to launch his speech in Trafford.

He said: "I came here because I think the people of Trafford know that this is an important election.

"There's big issues at stake about who the country works for and how we make the country work again for working people in Trafford, and of course Trafford has real resonance because of what happened in 1948, and the first hospital free at the point of use.

"We have got to hire more doctors, more nurses, more midwives and more care workers, which is what a Labour government will do, and we have got to invest in services in the community so people can see their GP in a timely way, so elderly people can be kept longer in their own home, get the care they need.

"There's a big choice in this election on the NHS, is it an NHS which is rescued from the Tories, or another five years of the Tories, because goodness knows what will happen to it if David Cameron gets back."

Asked if Labour was fully committed to funding the NHS, Mr Miliband said: "Yes, and we have shown how we are the only party who has shown how it can raise extra resources with the Mansion Tax, tackling tax avoidance and taking action by taking money from the tobacco companies, to provide extra resources to invest in the NHS."