Labour would draft in former nurses to help ease the burden on accident and emergency departments, Ed Miliband has said.
GPs could also be installed in hospitals to cool pressure on the straining service, the Labour leader added.
Andy Burnham has said that Labour would combine the health and social services budgets to try and care for the elderly in their homes before they become a burden on the NHS.
The shadow health secretary told Good Morning Britain: "I've repeatedly warned that if you cut social care, if you take away support from older people in their homes; in the end that falls back on the NHS because people go into hospital and they become trapped there. "I've said that we'll bring health and social care together I think the time has come to see them as one budget."
Ed Miliband wants former nursing staff to be drafted in as part of a new five-point plan to ease the burden on accident and emergency.
Hospitals are saying there simply are not enough beds and trained medical staff for sick patients who need to be admitted.
With A&E waiting times slumping to their worst in 10 years, did your hospital make it on to the worst 10 list?