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.
A senior doctor at the Royal Bolton Hospital, which declared a "major incident" yesterday, has said A&E units are in crisis.
Dr Chris Moulton, a consultant in emergency medicine who has worked at the hospital for two decades, told the Daily Mirror: "There is no space to see people in A&E and no beds to admit them to."
Some patients waited 12 hours for a bed while others crammed into every inch of the department waiting to be seen.
Dr Moulton said under-pressure nurses were tearful as they struggled to cope with all the patients, while two senior doctors and an experienced nurse "had enough" and recently quit.
"There is no quick fix to the A&E crisis. The Government says it has ploughed an extra £700million into the NHS to help over winter. It's like giving someone £50 at midnight on Christmas Eve and telling them to get themselves a present. It's just too late now."
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?