NHS Waiting Times 2025-01-07
2025-01-07
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
The MP notes the high number of Scots on NHS waiting lists and individuals resorting to private healthcare due to long waits.
What steps is his Department taking to help reduce NHS waiting times? Almost one in six Scots is stuck on an NHS waiting list. People are borrowing money and remortgaging their homes to go private, because they cannot bear the pain. With an SNP Government who have abandoned the principles of an NHS free at the point of entry, does my right hon. Friend agree that Scotland’s health service needs a new direction?
This Government are delivering on our commitment to cut NHS waiting lists and end the Tory backlog. We have taken immediate action with an additional £1.8 billion to support elective activity this year. That funding will support the delivery of our first step of 40,000 extra elective appointments a week. With investment must come reform, and the elective reform plan, published yesterday and announced by the Prime Minister, sets out how we will cut NHS waits to the 18-week standard, increase productivity, reform the system and improve patients’ choice and control over their healthcare. I strongly agree with my hon. Friend. As I said during the general election campaign—it was quoted regularly by the SNP—all roads lead to Westminster. Down that road from Westminster is a record increase in funding for the Scottish Government through the Barnett formula.
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Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
The MP raises concerns about planned ward closures at Goole and district general hospital, which he believes undermines efforts to reduce waiting lists.
The Secretary of State knows that I wrote to him before Christmas about the planned ward closures and degradation of services at Goole and district general hospital. Doing so will take beds, facilities and employees away from the national health service, which will do nothing but undermine his real attempts to reduce waiting lists and all the plans he announced yesterday. Will he look at the trust-level decision systems that lead to such catastrophic decisions that will undermine every aspect of NHS strategy and all that he is trying to do?
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for writing to me before Christmas. I recognise the pressures that have been placed on NHS commissioners in recent years and the pressure that that has put on service configurations. I tend to support the devolution of decision making, with decisions about service reconfigurations taken closer to the communities they serve. I recognise also that commissioners do not always get it right, which is why engagement with Members of Parliament and other democratically elected representatives is important. Ministerial oversight is important, too. We will look seriously at the issues he raises and talk to NHS leaders, and I know he will be doing the same. This Government are determined to give NHS leaders the tools to do the job, so that we can get the right care in the right place at the right time, with a better experience for patients and better value for taxpayers.
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Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q3
Partial Answer
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Context
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, has received a letter from the MP about planned ward closures and service degradation at Goole and district general hospital. The MP is concerned that these decisions will undermine efforts to reduce waiting lists.
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for writing to me before Christmas. I recognise the pressures that have been placed on NHS commissioners in recent years and the pressure that that has put on service configurations. I tend to support the devolution of decision making, with decisions about service reconfigurations taken closer to the communities they serve. I recognise also that commissioners do not always get it right, which is why engagement with Members of Parliament and other democratically elected representatives is important. Ministerial oversight is important, too. We will look seriously at the issues he raises and talk to NHS leaders, and I know he will be doing the same. This Government are determined to give NHS leaders the tools to do the job, so that we can get the right care in the right place at the right time, with a better experience for patients and better value for taxpayers.
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for writing to me before Christmas. I recognise the pressures that have been placed on NHS commissioners in recent years and the pressure that that has put on service configurations. I tend to support the devolution of decision making, with decisions about service reconfigurations taken closer to the communities they serve. I recognise also that commissioners do not always get it right, which is why engagement with Members of Parliament and other democratically elected representatives is important. Ministerial oversight is important, too. We will look seriously at the issues he raises and talk to NHS leaders, and I know he will be doing the same. This Government are determined to give NHS leaders the tools to do the job, so that we can get the right care in the right place at the right time, with a better experience for patients and better value for taxpayers.
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Assessment & feedback
The Secretary of State did not provide concrete details or commitments on reviewing trust-level decision systems specifically. He emphasized the importance of engagement and ministerial oversight but did not commit to specific actions regarding the issue raised.
Under Review
Working With Nhs Leaders
Response accuracy