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Question
The Member questions the effectiveness of the government’s current measures in addressing immediate pressures on A&E departments, given that delays are already impacting patient care. He asks for a commitment from the Minister to urgently address these issues.
Minister reply
The minister responded by confirming that steps have been taken to provide additional physical capacity and reduce delayed discharges to alleviate immediate pressure on A&E departments.
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Question
Acknowledging the significant strain caused by flu, this MP inquires about the availability of antiviral treatments for those who test positive.
Minister reply
The minister assured that there are robust plans to ensure the provision of antiviral medication across all areas of care.
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Question
This MP questions why a national agreement was not reached with nurses on pay, which could have prevented strikes and further disruption to services.
Minister reply
The minister emphasised that negotiations are ongoing but stressed the importance of continued discussions to reach an amicable resolution.
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Question
This Member inquires about specific plans for winter recovery, including funding and staffing measures, particularly in Wales.
Minister reply
The minister stated that the recovery plan includes dedicated funds and initiatives to support health services across England, with particular focus on local needs.
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Question
The Secretary of State talks about a fresh start, but the NHS is in crisis due to mismanagement and underfunding by Conservative Government for 13 years. The collapse was foreseeable last summer, yet measures are announced now. How can patients be discharged when care homes lack capacity? Labour has plans that could train more doctors and nurses; why not adopt them?
Minister reply
The hon. Member’s own deputy leader and shadow Chancellor do not agree with his unfunded plans for the NHS, which would cost a fortune based on an outdated view. Internationally, health systems face pressure due to flu spikes and covid waves. Engaging with trade unions, the discussions made progress despite one union leader's comments outside. Measures were announced earlier; integrated care boards took effect in July last year. £500 million for discharge was announced in autumn statement, followed by £600 million next year and £1 billion the year after. 7,000 extra community beds are planned, new technology will be rolled out at scale. Immediate pressure due to flu surge, high bed occupancy and staff absences also increase during winter. NHS leaders asked for better flow into hospitals and decompression of emergency departments through triaging and bringing clinical specialties closer to the front door.
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Steve Brine
Constitutional Conservative/Democratic Unionist Party
Winchester
Question
Inquired about real-time oversight mechanisms for ensuring NHS England spends additional funding wisely and urged not to overlook domiciliary care, highlighting its critical role in patient flow.
Minister reply
Acknowledged the importance of reducing delays in ambulance handovers and discharge processes. Emphasised the role of wraparound services for discharged patients to prevent them from getting stuck in residential care unnecessarily.
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Question
Critiqued the government's longstanding approach to NHS funding at crisis points, pointing out the need for better integration of health and social care services.
Minister reply
Defended the £500 million allocation towards local authorities' social care budgets, highlighting initiatives such as block booking in residential care facilities and workforce recruitment from abroad.
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Question
Asked for measures to divert frail elderly patients away from A&E departments through virtual wards or other means.
Minister reply
Cited the example of a Watford General Hospital's virtual ward, which released capacity in hospitals by providing home-based care with regular monitoring and support.
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Question
Questioned where staff would come from to look after patients put in hotels, given the 51% increase in social care vacancies over a year.
Minister reply
Addressed workforce interventions with increased funding for local authorities and international recruitment efforts through the shortage occupation list.
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Question
Welcomed the additional money for discharge but urged to accelerate health and social care integration.
Minister reply
Acknowledged the importance of integrated care systems (ICBs), highlighting ministerial meetings with ICB leaders to discuss operational challenges.
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Question
Pressed for changes in the remit for pay review body due to rising inflation and economic factors, impacting staff retention.
Minister reply
Focussed on funding delays in domiciliary care support rather than NHS Agenda for Change contracts as key to addressing delayed discharges.
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Question
Asked about specific details of the announced funding reaching Essex's frontline, highlighting local challenges.
Minister reply
Agreed to write with specific details on when funds will reach Essex and explained the urgency of rapid deployment for both £500 million and £250 million allocations.
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Question
Pressed for a national critical incident declaration to mobilise NHS resources fully, citing urgent need for funding in the next 7-10 days.
Minister reply
Confirmed the purpose of today’s announcement was to provide urgent uplift in funding and noted the global context of sudden spikes in flu cases.
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Question
Yes, but they also have covid and flu in France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Holland. Winter after winter, they cope far better because they have much more integrated social insurance systems. Some people like me have been banging on about this for years, but now the former Health Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid), is suggesting a social insurance system, as is newspaper editorial after newspaper editorial. What is our long-term plan? We cannot leave the Labour party to have a long-term plan while we do not. How are we going to reform this centrally controlled construct? People of my age have paid taxes all their life and their only right is to enjoy the back of a two-year queue! What is the Secretary of State’s plan?
Minister reply
First, integrating health and social care through the integrated care boards. That is what we put in place from July, recognising that actually the pressures on the NHS are often as much about pressure on social care as they are about pressures in the NHS itself. In particular, if we look at ambulances, we see that often it is the delay in domiciliary care that is driving the blockage on the wards, which in turn applies there. Secondly, it is recognising that there are workforce pressures, which is why NHS England has been working on the workforce plan that has been set up.
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Question
I am really not clear how, despite all the warnings, the Government have got themselves into this position after the biggest crisis in NHS. We all know that it is a no-brainer to invest in social care to reduce bed blocking, so what exactly is the purpose of the pilot that has been announced for Hull and the Humber? It will tell us what we already know: that what we need is investment in social care and reform of social care.
Minister reply
We recognised very early—in fact, NHS England recognised it in the summer—that this winter was likely to be extremely hard, both because population resilience to flu would be lower as a consequence of the pandemic and because of the combination of pandemic backlogs with the ongoing level of covid admissions. As I have said, we have more than 9,000 patients in hospital with covid and a further 5,000 with flu; that comes on top of the other strains from the pandemic that we have seen.
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Question
I welcome the measures that my right hon. Friend has set out for us today; it is absolutely right that we consider a wide suite of measures. With that in mind, may I draw his attention to my region? We have, I think, the second biggest ICB area by geography, but without the population to match. Will he consider giving us an additional community diagnostic hub? For everyone in the area to have access, we need two, not one. Will he look at that, please?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the importance of diagnostic centres, which we have particularly prioritised. As she knows, I am extremely keen to accelerate the programme so that where we award community diagnostic centres, they open in 2023.
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Question
Hospitals used by my constituents in Liverpool and Knowsley have had queues at A&E of 33 hours, 41 hours and 30-plus hours. They have had dozens of ambulances queuing up outside for entire shifts, unable to transfer even one patient. These problems were predictable and—as the Secretary of State has just said—predicted, yet he disappeared over Christmas and the new year when they were going on, only emerging last week to blame them on flu and covid. When will he acknowledge that leaving it until January to deal with winter pressures is too little, too late? When will he take responsibility and apologise for the lamentable situation in which he has left my constituents and many others across this country? The fear, the pain, the worry—when will he say sorry for it?
Minister reply
That simply is not accurate. Let me give the hon. Lady some specific examples. Under the auxiliary contract with St John Ambulance, we invested an extra £150 million in the ambulance service, and we invested a further £50 million in additional capacity for call centres.
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Question
Do the Government recognise the danger of a major increase in pressure on the NHS as a result of any new variant of covid that may be imported from China? How quickly would we be able to identify such a variant and prepare a vaccine against it?
Minister reply
Let me first congratulate my right hon. Friend—along with the whole House, I am sure—on the knighthood that he received from His Majesty.
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Question
Strikes by nurses and ambulance workers are a last resort for overworked staff, who fear that patient safety is suffering as a result of increased demand and staff shortages. Instead of providing proper pay increases, the Labour Welsh Government have responded by offering Welsh health service staff tokenistic one-off payments, and, reportedly, the right hon. Gentleman’s Government are considering doing the same in England. Can he guarantee that if that approach is taken, one-off payments will be recognised as support with the cost of living crisis rather than proper pay increases, and will be treated as such for tax and benefit purposes?
Minister reply
As we have said previously, we have a process, through the independent pay review body, to look at these issues in the round and, when it comes to the needs of our NHS—my focus, obviously, is on the NHS in England; it is for the Welsh Government to conduct negotiation in Wales—to balance what constitutes the right level of funding for retention and recruitment against the wider issues of affordability for the economy as a whole.
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Question
In recent weeks, constituents have been in tears because of the state of A&E departments. Despite recognising the immediate pressure caused by the pandemic and ongoing issues like flu, the public wants to know when further announced funding will lead to meaningful change in Gloucestershire’s A&E departments.
Minister reply
The announcement addresses the immediate pressures from legacy pandemic issues and current spikes such as flu. Additionally, innovation through technology, artificial intelligence, virtual wards, and modular capacity are being implemented to improve care for elderly patients before they reach emergency departments or hospital release them quicker with ongoing clinical supervision. Investment in life sciences R&D of £15 billion to £20 billion is also part of this initiative.
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Emma Hardy
Lab
Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice
Question
The failure to fix social care impacts not only acute services but mental health services, where 42% of adult learning difficulty beds are taken by delayed discharge patients. What investment will be given to provide the right social care support services?
Minister reply
Funding for mental health is being increased by £2.3 billion and reforms to the Mental Health Act 1983 are underway to better target funding.
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Question
Will progress on prioritising tier 2 health visas with the Home Office be confirmed, and will help be provided for staff parking and out-of-hours food during this winter season?
Minister reply
Work is ongoing with Home Office colleagues regarding visa components. Discussions are also being held to address staff needs such as parking and food provision.
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Question
More than 5,000 operations have been cancelled at Barnsley Hospital in the last year. What are the Government doing to reassure those waiting for delayed operations and ensure new staff are deployed where they are most needed?
Minister reply
£8 billion has been invested to reduce the backlog through surgical hubs and better use of community diagnostic centres, with a focus on hot and cold sites to build resilience.
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Question
Does the Secretary of State agree that step-down care facilities are needed in the community to provide intermediate care for those leaving hospitals?
Minister reply
Step-down care is crucial and includes lighter patient-staff ratios. Virtual wards allow patients to be at home with clinical support, reducing hospital capacity pressure.
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Question
Will the Health Secretary heed Minnie’s words and undo 13 years of running down our NHS by giving NHS workers a proper pay rise, ending privatisation and providing necessary funding?
Minister reply
While recognising unacceptable care cases recently, pressure from flu and covid globally is highlighted. Vaccine take-up encouragement is proposed to alleviate hospital demand.
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Question
Does the Secretary of Friend agree that putting more focus on encouraging vaccination take-up can help reduce demand in hospitals?
Minister reply
Increased vaccine uptake, especially for over-50s and bivalent vaccines targeting omicron and original strain, is encouraged. Flu vaccinations are also crucial.
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Question
With 133,000 vacancies in the NHS and 165,000 in social care, why are the Government not meeting nurses halfway on pay or addressing low care worker wages?
Minister reply
Significant investment is being made in Brighton’s new hospital. More doctors and nurses than last year exist now, and £500 million was announced to support social care workers, including placing them on the shortage occupation list.
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Question
Focussing on local pressures in Worcestershire, with a significant increase in A&E attendances and issues around blocked hospital beds, will the minister ensure that some of the £200-million funding package reaches Worcestershire hospitals to upgrade their A&Es?
Minister reply
The minister acknowledged previous delays due to contractual disputes but emphasised that today's announcement will enable Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in Robin Walker’s area to accelerate discharge plans, thus reducing pressure on A&E departments.
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Question
How does the Secretary of State expect care homes to cope with increased pressure from hospital discharges without adequate staffing levels and what measures will be taken to prevent further infections in care homes?
Minister reply
The minister highlighted improvements such as vaccines, antivirals, and knowledge about covid, but also acknowledged the need for better support for social care staff, including international recruitment efforts.
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Question
How will community pharmacists be integrated into healthcare to reduce pressures on GPs and A&E?
Minister reply
The minister agreed with the suggestion, noting that he has asked NHS England to explore opportunities for pharmacists to do more. He also mentioned home testing initiatives as part of a broader strategy.
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Question
Will the Government support legislation introduced by Daisy Cooper to identify and address hotspots with large ambulance waiting times?
Minister reply
The minister noted that excess mortality is a global issue, not just related to one cause. He highlighted the importance of considering various factors contributing to non-covid-related deaths.
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Question
How will the measures outlined today support faster ambulance response times?
Minister reply
The minister explained that by freeing up capacity in emergency departments through better use of same-day emergency care and improved discharge processes, ambulances can hand over patients more quickly.
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Question
What measures will be taken to retain existing social care staff given the current crisis?
Minister reply
The minister highlighted recent investments in social care, including £7.5 billion over two years and a further £6.6 billion for the NHS, as well as emphasising the importance of both international recruitment and retaining existing staff.
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Question
Does the Secretary of State agree that independent sector facilities should be used to maximise hospital capacity?
Minister reply
The minister agreed, stating his commitment to maximising use of facilities from within the independent sector.
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Question
What progress is being made on addressing tax liabilities faced by consultants due to their pension contributions?
Minister reply
The minister noted that this matter is under consideration by the Chancellor, as it involves taxation.
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Question
Will measures deliver more social care places across North Staffordshire to address NHS pressures?
Minister reply
The minister assured that these measures will contribute towards addressing the issue, noting the autumn statement's focus on integrating health and social care through ICBs.
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Question
Is it acceptable for a child with severe breathing difficulties to wait 34 hours in A&E due to lack of hospital beds?
Minister reply
The minister acknowledged the troubling case, highlighting that integrated care systems will have control centres to better address such issues.
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Question
In addition to the substantial increase in the number of cases of flu, the intense cold snap shortly before Christmas put further unforeseeable pressure on hospitals. Stoke Mandeville Hospital saw four times as many broken hips as it normally would in that period. He warmly welcomes the Health and Social Care Secretary’s announcement on freeing up thousands of beds. Does he agree that putting a real focus on intermediate care and step-down beds is key, so it will be important for integrated care boards to work constructively with local authorities and NHS trusts?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend raises an extremely important point about the role of step-down care in freeing up capacity in hospital. He is also right to point to significant increases in demand, combined with an impact on supply due to flu, which exacerbated staff absences during the Christmas period.
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Question
What contingency did the Secretary of State put in place for a spike in flu cases? He speaks as if it took the Department by surprise, but it was widely predicted that there would be a spike in flu cases following on from the lockdowns during covid. Is announcing 4,500 places to ease pressure sufficient, given that last year there were between 12,000 and 13,000 cases per day of delayed discharge?
Minister reply
First, the central announcement at the autumn statement was an additional capacity for domiciliary care and further support for social care. Additional measures have been taken, such as expanding the cohort eligible for flu and covid vaccine to over-50s, investing in bivalent vaccines, and adding 7,000 beds.
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Question
I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and the new funding announced. The Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust had to declare a critical incident between 29 December and 6 January. Can he confirm when the money will arrive and start making a difference to constituents in Nottinghamshire, and what his Department is doing not only to attract new people to work in social care but to try to win back some of those who have recently left?
Minister reply
The NHS will take immediate action to arrange additional step-down care. The wider social care system includes an integrated model co-locating social care and NHS staff, which has been beneficial for the workforce.
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Question
Patients living with cancer, their families, and the outstanding cancer workforce will be staggered that we have just had a statement on NHS pressures that put forward no serious plan to tackle the deadly cancer backlog. What is the urgent plan to tackle the cancer backlog?
Minister reply
92% of new patients are starting their cancer treatment within four weeks. The programme of community diagnostic centres and the surgical hubs programme prioritise cancer treatments, as well as bringing out the potential of world-leading cancer vaccines from our life sciences strategy.
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Question
The Secretary of State is right that nothing about this situation is unique to the UK. The demand on the ambulance service is driven by more people living longer with more conditions, sometimes requiring care at 1 or 2 in the morning when only the NHS service will turn up is the ambulance service. What is his vision for the future of community paramedicine?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend raises a brilliant point about how we upskill the existing workforce and get more people operating at what is referred to as the top of their licence, better utilising the existing workforce roles.
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Question
Last month, a constituent with dementia waited three hours for an ambulance and then spent 10 hours in the back of the ambulance at A&E. Can he give some confidence that everything announced today will filter through quickly to ambulance response times?
Minister reply
Looking at media coverage, the hon. Lady raises a very fair challenge. To give her a sense of what underscores our approach, 15 trusts are responsible for 56% of ambulance handover delays. Targeting additional capacity on the areas where delays are most acute is one of the central things we are doing at pace.
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Question
Expressed gratitude towards staff at Royal Stoke University Hospital and Haywood walk-in centre. Asked about reinstating blue-light ability for community first responders taken away by the West Midlands Ambulance Service and increasing core funding of community pharmacies since 2014.
Minister reply
Minister offered to look into the issue regarding blue-light ability and acknowledged that the Under-Secretary of State is examining how to better enable patients through community pharmacy services.
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Question
Discussed delayed discharges from hospitals. Noted a social care step-down facility, Spinneyfields, in his constituency was closing and suggested the NHS could take it over using part of £250 million to free up 51 beds at acute hospitals.
Minister reply
Acknowledged that decisions should be made locally through integrated care boards (ICBs) rather than centrally. Minister encouraged Peter Bone's local ICB to identify where best to allocate funds for local capacity.
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Question
Discussed the pressures faced by Chesterfield Royal Hospital staff and A&E departments, questioning if this was a system-wide issue resulting from 13 years of inadequate funding.
Minister reply
Agreed it is a system-wide challenge and highlighted the use of virtual wards as part of demand management. Also pointed out that similar pressure exists in other health systems globally.
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Question
Welcomed extra funding for NHS but asked about capital funding for Southend University Hospital and suggested care homes take discharges after 5 pm to reduce backlog.
Minister reply
Noted that the hospital's £8 million capital request is under review and suggested looking at discharge lounges as a solution instead of waiting until morning. Also discussed supporting care homes to ensure they are confident in taking patients.
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Question
Asked about staff retention issues, noting the shortage across disciplines and levels exacerbating ambulance wait times.
Minister reply
Emphasised expanding staff numbers but also highlighted the importance of upskilling existing staff to handle multiple conditions. Also mentioned the role technology can play in freeing up nursing time.
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Question
Noted that Norfolk and Waveney has received £11 million for discharges, but there are still 128 patients who do not need to be at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Highlighted the importance of investing in modern hospitals like QEH.
Minister reply
Acknowledged the RAAC hospital issue and visited King's Lynn hospital himself; discussed with Treasury for potential updates.
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Question
Criticised government's refusal to make a new offer on pay during union talks, suggesting it demands efficiency savings from staff who are already overworked.
Minister reply
Responded by pointing out that the comments were made outside the Department of Health and Social Care by someone not present in the actual meeting.
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Question
It is pleasing to hear from across the House a focus on capacity in domiciliary care, which is a huge priority. Ultimately, that is where we want people to end up: independent in their own homes, as far as possible. I wonder if the Secretary of State could reassure me about some elements of the plan for the NHS to procure care beds. Where does he envisage staff coming from? If it is from the NHS, how will we ensure that more people do not leave domiciliary care for what are often better-paid roles in the NHS? In the same vein, on capacity, how will we ensure that people are able to move on from residential care beds into domiciliary care when there is that shortage of capacity?
Minister reply
As befits the leader of his own county council, my hon. Friend rightly recognises the importance of the integration of health and care. I have pointed to examples where that is already being done extremely effectively in an integrated way. As I recognised in my remarks, the medical director of NHS England has said that helping people to leave hospital with the right support when they are ready to do so is not just clinically the best option for those individuals, but one of the safest options for expanding capacity for everyone who needs care. It is the right thing to do clinically, but his point—one that we are extremely focused on—is about how we then ensure that wraparound service for patients who are released into residential care so that they can move into domiciliary care.
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Question
I know that the Secretary of State appreciates that the winter pressures are only exacerbated by the looming strikes. I joined the picket line at Newtownards hospital back in early December. Just before Christmas, I had the opportunity to meet Pat Cullen, the leader of the nurses’ union at St Thomas’s Hospital, just across Westminster bridge, as the protest was ongoing, and we heard in the news that she referred to a glimmer of hope over today’s talks between the Government and nurses. Does the Secretary of State believe that there can be real engagement with not only nurses and midwives, but junior doctors, who are also threatening strikes? Does he agree that it is about not just a pay increase, but an increase in the numbers of staff to secure safety and accountability on shifts in hospitals tonight and every night from today on?
Minister reply
I agree that a combination of pay and wider conditions have an impact on recruitment and retention. That is why we have been keen to engage constructively with the trade unions; we had a good discussion earlier today. We recognise that there is a range of factors. To take the example of paramedics, the feedback from my discussions with a number of paramedics was that their frustration about handover times and the delays that they were experiencing was more important to them than pay. It is important to have discussions through the independent pay review bodies about pay, what is affordable and what is the right balance, but a range of non-pay factors are also extremely important to staff.
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Question
The biggest flu outbreak in 10 years has seen Kettering General Hospital become the 28th busiest hospital in the country, with a bed occupancy rate of 96.5% in the week leading up to the new year. The Secretary of State was kind enough to visit it last year and stood in the busy and overcrowded A&E. He was also good enough to visit Thorndale care home, where he was briefed on the fact that the rate of increase in the number of over-80s in Northamptonshire gives it one of the fastest-growing elderly populations in the country. In thanking the Secretary of State for the measures that he has outlined today and the extra funding, I ask whether he will ensure that Northamptonshire, North Northamptonshire Council, the Northamptonshire ICB and, crucially, Kettering General Hospital get their fair share of the funding that he has announced, so that we can tackle these winter pressures quickly and successfully?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is right to point to the real pressures at Kettering which, as he says, I have visited. Not only am I keen to see it get its fair share, but I know that he will absolutely champion it through his good offices to ensure that that is the case, as he always does. He also raises an important point that the pressure of an ageing population is not universally distributed but is more intense in certain areas than others. Again, in our scrutiny of the data, I am keen to look at how that plays out in the variation in performance between trusts because, as I said, 15 trusts account for 56% of ambulance handover delays and there is significant variation across the NHS. Understanding what is driving that, such as different ageing profiles between different areas, is a key part of our recovery plans.
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Question
I spent Friday morning at Warrington Hospital to see the challenges that A&E department staff are facing. One senior clinician said to me that it was the busiest he had seen it in 30 years. The entire hospital was full—there were no beds—and last Monday, 90 people were waiting in A&E to be admitted to a bed. The Secretary of State knows that I am waiting for an announcement on whether a new hospital can be funded in Warrington, and I am keen to hear when that announcement will come, but can he reassure my constituents that the funding announced today will support the staff in Warrington Hospital and the social care staff in Warrington and ensure that the pressures that they are facing will be addressed immediately?
Minister reply
Yes, I can; that is the whole purpose of the announcement. Although my hon. Friend campaigns assiduously for the new hospital, he will concede that, regardless of the decision, that would take time. To his point about the hospital being full, there is an immediate challenge about how we get additional capacity into the emergency department so that it can operate more effectively, because if there are too many people, that impedes an emergency department’s ability to operate effectively. There is also a challenge about how we address the wider occupancy in the hospital as a whole, because that is at the core of getting flow into the system. That is the essence of the feedback that we have listened to and taken on board from the clinical community —as he did on Friday—particularly within emergency departments. Today’s announcement speaks to the exact issue that he raises.
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Question
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker—I am last but I hope I am certainly not least. Some 700 beds are due to come online thanks to the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital and there is a new primary care centre in Wednesbury, so when my right hon. Friend’s Department delivers, we see the benefit. Clearly, however, that means nothing if we cannot get the processes right. The most pressing issue for my constituents during the winter has still been access to their GPs, as I am sure hon. Members on both sides of the House will agree. I welcome what he has said about the use of technology to ensure that people are seen, but fundamentally, people still want face-to-face appointments, because if they are digitally disconnected, they cannot access that technology. It is as simple as that. I ask him to commit—just after he commits to come to Wednesbury to see our new primary care centre—to work through his good offices with GP practices where there is best practice, particularly in the Black Country ICB, to ensure that we enable people who are digitally disconnected to access GPs.
Minister reply
We are working actively with the primary care community. Indeed, that was a key focus of the Prime Minister’s summit in No. 10 on Saturday and it is part of the work that the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Neil O’Brien) is leading through the primary care recovery plan. Last year’s GP patient survey suggested that continuity of care and face-to-face appointments were extremely important for two fifths of patients, but that suggests that for three fifths—often younger patients—speed of access is more pertinent. Continuity of care is important for those with multiple conditions, particularly elderly patients.
Alongside that, my hon. Friend is right to raise the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital. Four years ago, when I visited as a Minister of State in the Department, it was near completion. As he knows, it has taken a significant amount of time since then to get to its opening, which is why we need to look at doing things differently when it comes to value for money. Looking at the hospital estate programme, nine of the last 10 hospitals were built over time and over spec, so we need to look at modular design, modern methods of construction, and standardisation, which deliver a 35% unit-on-unit reduction in cost and much quicker operational performance, and would enable us to get hospitals up and running earlier.
It is important to do things differently and the new hospital building programme is part of that. We have listened to the concerns of those on the frontline and today’s statement addresses the immediate issue of bed occupancy in hospitals and the pressure on emergency departments.