Health and Social Care Winter Update 2025-01-15

Question

Will the Secretary of State set out in more detail what he is doing to further drive vaccine rates and ensure that vaccines are available for all those who need and want them?

Question

Will the Secretary of State set out what support and additional resource is being offered not only to hospitals that have reached the point of declaring critical incidents, but to others that continue to face pressures?

Question

Will the Secretary of State update the House on how many people currently in acute settings are fit for discharge but have not been discharged for a variety of reasons?

Question

The Secretary of State mentioned pay, and said that he had negotiated a deal. I say gently to him that what he did was not negotiation but capitulation to an inflation-busting pay rise.

Question

Locally, there are 66,000 cases of people who have had to wait over 18 weeks for treatment. Does the Secretary of State agree that we need an urgent and emergency care plan to deliver much-needed year-on-year improvements?

Question

Will the Secretary of State commit to introducing faster and more detailed reporting about the live state of play in our emergency departments, including the number of critical incidents and the temporary escalation spaces? Will he publish information showing the impact that delays are having?

Question

The conditions at Victoria hospital, where paramedics have had to establish a makeshift ward outside due to ambulances queuing up outside A&E, are described as truly shocking. With the number of people presenting in December 2024 roughly similar to that in December 2019, but there has been an increase of almost 300% in those waiting over four hours at A&E. Does the Secretary of State agree this is a dreadful indictment of 18 years of SNP rule?

Question

Pressing on data points, multiple organisations call for more transparency. Will the Secretary of State commit to releasing that data before the NHS England board meeting on 4 February? What assessment has he made of winter's impact on less urgent care and elective waiting lists?

Question

Triaging patients into virtual wards can protect the front door of the NHS and be better for patients. What is being done to hold integrated care boards accountable, ensuring they put money into primary care instead of secondary care?

Question

Social care has a crucial role in taking pressure off hospitals. Why will it take three years for action on social care? Please put pressure on the review.

Question

A young man came to my constituency surgery desperate for a GP appointment due to hours of queuing on the phone. How is the Secretary of State continuing to work to undo the Conservatives’ failure to fix the GP crisis, which fuels winter pressure?

Question

Last week, UK Health Security Agency warned of elderly people suffering from heart attacks, strokes, and chest infections due to severe cold weather. Is the Secretary of State closer to admitting taking away winter fuel payments was not just cruel but life-threatening?

Question

May I thank the Secretary of State for making ending strikes his first priority and for finding a deal with junior doctors within three weeks, thus ensuring that staff would be on the frontline this winter instead of being on strike lines? He called the junior doctors and found a deal within three weeks, ending the strikes. For the first winter in three years, staff will be on the frontline, not the picket line.

Question

I accept that the Government is clearly not the architect of the current unacceptable state of affairs, but may I encourage the Secretary of State to reflect again on our exchange at the Health and Social Care Committee just a month ago when he resisted the recommendation of the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that we invest in more beds to accommodate additional admissions to hospital?

Question

Winter pressures have caused the cancellation of thousands of operations, including many of my own lists. Does the Secretary of State agree that the opening of the dedicated Clare Marx surgical centre in Colchester is an extremely welcome development?

Question

Research shows that ambulance response times in Haverhill in my constituency are twice those in Cambridge. We would like a new, co-located and purpose-built blue-light facility; the police and the ambulance service could use it to serve the town effectively, and it would hopefully save money. May I invite a Minister from the Department to come to Haverhill to meet me, the East of England ambulance service, Suffolk police and local councillors to discuss those plans?

Question

The Health Secretary will know that University Hospitals Birmingham in my constituency recently declared a critical incident, which I welcome as it is exactly what we want. What plans are there to extend the roll-out of vaccines to those aged 80 and above?

Question

The dire state that the last Government left the NHS in was all too apparent tragically to many of my constituents who needed it last winter. My 85-year-old constituent had to wait over 30 hours in a chair because there were no beds available, and they were far from alone in that indignity and prolonged suffering. What more will the Secretary of State do to ensure that next winter, many more of my constituents are not suffering from the same challenges?

Question

One thing we could do to improve the situation in Maidenhead is to reopen the walk-in urgent care centre at St Mark’s hospital so that we can keep people out of the big hospitals and A&E. Will he meet me to discuss how we can work together to get the walk-in urgent care centre at St Mark’s back open?

Question

I associate myself with comments about the nursing colleague who was so brutally attacked in Oldham. Improving staff pay and NHS plan made a difference under Labour. What else has my right hon. Gentleman learned from the successes of his forebears about tackling this winter crisis now and such crises in future?

Question

The Secretary of State will know that Stepping Hill hospital in Hazel Grove has a repairs backlog reported to be £130 million. Following the Budget, when should we expect clarity on funding per hospital so that my constituents and Stepping Hill patients get the hospital they deserve?

Question

The two GP surgeries that I visited in Skegness just before Christmas are concerned that the impact of the national insurance increases on their staffing budgets will be around £100,000 per surgery, which will force them to reduce staffing capacity and, therefore, appointment capacity. What will the Secretary of State do to help those GP surgeries in that situation? There seems to be a conflict between the sensible aspiration and the practical reality.

Question

I echo the Secretary of State’s comments and those of my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Edgbaston on recognising the endeavours of health and care staff during last week’s extremely difficult critical incidents, and I also recognise the effect of contingency planning that had taken place, including the provision of additional beds at West Heath hospital in my constituency. With respect to the central support the Secretary of State referred to, is he willing to make summaries of the support provided by NHS England to local trusts this year and in previous years?

Question

The Secretary of State has a really tough job of clearing up the mess left in the NHS by the Conservatives, but some of the Royal Berkshire hospital estate is not fit for purpose and especially not fit to cope with the winter crisis. Can he confirm that a proper level of funding will be available to rebuild the Royal Berkshire hospital and that there will be no increase in the seven-year delay announced by the Conservatives in April this year? That will help with future winter crises.

Question

As part of making the NHS fit for the future, moving some patient care from hospital to the community will be pivotal. In Doncaster, mayor Ros Jones and the council are already well on the way with this and they are setting up “Health on the High Street”, which is good not just for patients but for footfall in the city centre. Will my right hon. Friend set out what his Department is doing to support areas such as Doncaster in delivering on this strategy?

Question

I fear that corridor care has already become normalised and, as the Secretary of State says, it will be some time before we get back on the right path. This week there have been reports of a north London hospital advertising for dedicated corridor care nurses. I also think about my constituent who is a doctor at the Royal Sussex begging X-ray teams to give her a consultation room so she does not have to do intimate exams out in the corridor. What reassurance can the Secretary of State give the NHS workforce that things are going to get better?

Question

Despite the Conservative party’s best efforts to ruin our NHS, will the Secretary of State join me in paying tribute to the hard-working NHS and social care staff in my constituency who, despite enormous winter pressure, are doing their best to go above and beyond to provide exceptional care and keep the NHS on its feet?