Accident and Emergency Departments

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

12:34

[Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his plans to alleviate pressure on accident and emergency departments.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

This morning I made a written ministerial statement outlining the Government’s plans for the winter and detailing how we are allocating £250 million of funding for NHS England. Working with Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority, NHS England will distribute this money in 2013-14 to the areas where it is needed most. This follows the announcement in August by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister that A and E departments will be given an additional £500 million over the next two years to deal with seasonal pressures. Patients need to be able to rely on the NHS all year round, and especially when demand is at its greatest. Ensuring the NHS’s sustainability means identifying each of the challenges it faces and, where possible, alleviating the burden.

Flu is an avoidable pressure on the NHS. Every year, around 750,000 patients see their GP with flu symptoms and nearly 5,000 people die. While flu levels have been comparatively low in the last two years, it would be complacent to assume that they will not rise. Should this happen, it will increase pressure on A and Es, which have already seen a rise in admissions of 32% in the last decade.

The best way to protect oneself and other people from flu is to get the flu vaccine, so, for the first time, children aged two and three will be offered the innovative nasal spray vaccine. Young children’s close contact with others makes them more likely to transmit flu to vulnerable groups including infants and the elderly.

Around 27,000 people spend time in hospital with flu every year, so it is very important that NHS staff should do all they can to avoid getting, and passing on, flu. Less than half of front-line NHS staff get vaccinated against flu. In some hospitals, that drops to fewer than one in five. The Government want to boost significantly the number of health care workers getting the flu vaccine. Trusts will not be eligible to receive a portion of the money in future years if they do not achieve a staff vaccination rate of 75%, except in exceptional circumstances.

This funding will be targeted in the following way: £15 million will go towards securing a reliable NHS 111 service throughout the winter period; subject to completion of current scrutiny of plans, a total provisional amount of £221 million will go to the 53 highest-risk systems; and a small contingency of £14 million will be used for final settlements, for trusts to use in the winter. My written ministerial statement outlines the indicative amounts that have been allocated to specific trusts. The additional allocation will require an increase to the revenue budget for NHS England for 2013-14, as had been specified in the mandate, and the revision to the mandate will be laid before Parliament in due course.

I recognise, however, that we need more radical change to reduce pressures on A and E departments over the longer term. I am currently consulting on my plans to provide improved care for vulnerable older people, to keep them out of hospital through better, more proactive care in their community. This will include better joint-working between the health and care systems; personalised, proactive care overseen by a named, accountable GP; and the sharing of GP records across different organisations, including out-of-hours GP services and the ambulance service.

NHS staff are working harder than ever before, and the British public rely on the NHS just as much as they have always done, and on a year-round basis. The plans outlined in this announcement will improve patient safety levels and help to reduce avoidable pressure on the NHS in the winter months ahead.

[Andy Burnham]

This Secretary of State has been in office for one year—the worst year in A and E in a decade: close to 1 million people waiting more than four hours, and on his watch, the first summer A and E crisis in living memory. But with this Government it is always someone else’s fault: GPs, nurses, patients, the weather, immigration, bank holidays—nothing to do with him, Mr Speaker, he is just a member of the public, as he is fond of saying. Well, I have got news for him: he is the Secretary of State, and it is time he started acting like it. All year we have warned him about the growing A and E crisis. First, he ignored those warnings, leaving A and E ill-prepared on the brink of a dangerous winter, as the NHS Confederation has warned. Now, in panic, he briefs out half-baked plans, without coming to this House. This is too little, too late. It is not good enough that we have had to drag him here on an issue of huge importance to our constituents. With his spin about the GP contract, he neglects the real causes.

First, on staffing, we learn today of the shocking shortage of doctors covering A and Es overnight, and we heard at the weekend reports of A and Es up and down the land without enough staff. More than 5,000 nursing jobs have been lost on the Government’s watch—and counting. Enough is enough. When will the Secretary of State stop the job cuts and ensure that all A and Es have enough staff to provide safe care?

Secondly, on GP opening hours, the Secretary of State tries to blame the 2004 contract but conveniently ignores the fact that A and E performance improved between 2004 and 2010. The truth is that it is the Government who have let GP practices stop evening and weekend surgeries, and it is the Government who ended the guarantee of appointments within 48 hours. What is he doing to restore patient access to GPs?

Thirdly, on social care, in the first two years of this Government there was an appalling 66% increase in the number of people aged over 90 coming into A and E via a blue-light ambulance—that is more than 100,000 very frail and frightened people in the backs of ambulances speeding through our cities and towns. That is a scandal, and it is more to do with social care cuts than anything else. I do not know how many more times I am going to have to ask the Secretary of State this: when will he do something to stop the collapse of social care in England?

All the while the Secretary of State blames a contract signed 10 years ago for today’s pressure he neglects the real causes of his A and E crisis. That is dangerous and it cannot carry on. Patients and staff cannot go through another year in A and E like the one we have just had. He should cut the spin, get a grip or go.

[Mr Hunt]

In the right hon. Gentleman’s endless quest to turn the NHS into a political football, he, disappointingly, paints a picture that is a long way from reality. He talks about A and E performance. Yes, since I have been Health Secretary we have missed our target in one quarter, but when he was Health Secretary he missed it in two of the three quarters, including 14 weeks over the crucial winter period. What he does not tell the House is that this Government actually hit their A and E target for the year as a whole, whereas in Labour-controlled Wales the NHS budget has been cut and the A and E target has not been hit since 2009—he repeatedly refuses to confront that.

The right hon. Gentleman talks about the number of nurses being down. He might want to check the figures and correct the record for the House when he uses the 5,000 figure, because the fact is that the number of hospital nurses—hospitals are where A and E departments are—has gone up under this Government, as has the number of doctors, health visitors and midwives. None of that would be possible if we had cut the NHS budget by £600 million from its current levels, which is his policy.

The right hon. Gentleman then talks about the social care budget. Under his Government the number of over-80s went up by more than a quarter, yet the Labour Government cut social care funding per head. We have introduced the innovative £3.8 billion merged health and social care fund, which will transform the joined-up nature of the services that people receive.

Finally, I am afraid that Labour Members are burying their heads in the sand about the enormous damage they did when they removed named GPs for members of the public under the GP contract. Professor Keith Willett, one of the most senior doctors in the NHS and responsible for all A and E services in NHS England, has said that between 15% and 30% of the people using A and E could be using primary care instead. That is why we are announcing really important changes to the way in which the GP contract operates, in order to address this problem. When the Government come before the House with a sensible package of short-term and long-term measures, any responsible Opposition would welcome it—instead, we have had political posturing and no attempt to address the real challenges facing the NHS.

[Mr Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood) (Con)]

May I welcome the £250 million that my right hon. Friend has announced as short-term relief of the pressures in A and E departments this winter, and in particular the £10 million he has announced for Leicester’s hospitals trust? Does he agree that the way to relieve pressure in A and E departments is by recognising that the health and care system is a single system that needs to be joined up and that the announcement by the Chancellor of £3.8 billion made available from health service spending to promote better integration of health and social care is the most effective single thing we can do to relieve pressure on A and E departments?

[Mr Hunt]

As so often on these matters, my right hon. Friend speaks extremely wisely. Since April, we have been working hard to deal with the underlying pressures on A and E departments while ensuring that we have cash available for short-term measures while those longer-term measures are put in place. He is absolutely right that joined-up integrated services are critical for A and E departments, because one of the biggest problems that they mention is the difficulty in discharging people from hospital, which makes it hard for them to admit patients who need to be admitted, often in very distressed circumstances. We also need to address the longer-term IT problems that mean that A and E departments cannot access people’s medical records and the question of alternatives to A and E, particularly in the community and through enhanced GP services.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

If the Secretary of State is serious about people not attending A and E unnecessarily, why did he cut Labour’s extended GP opening hours and why is he allowing NHS walk-in centres to close up and down the country?

[Mr Hunt]

The fact is that one thing we need to do is to address why people go to A and E instead of the alternatives, such as walk-in centres. Communication about the alternatives to A and E is not as good as it needs to be. We are addressing those issues, but I must say to the right hon. Gentleman that the previous Government failed to address this problem when he was Health Minister and the difficult issue of the reconfiguration of services was never fully grasped. We are grasping it and that is why Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is undertaking his review right now.

[Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on his welcome stand on continuity of care and the role that that plays in reducing A and E admissions. Could he go further in stating how he will ensure that we have more doctors trained from medical school in both A and E and general practice?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right and staff recruitment is critical. We have already said that we want another 2,000 GPs and are considering whether that is enough. We recognise the fact that general practice is very stretched, that we need GPs to offer more services and that we need more people to do that. Professor Keogh’s review is considering A and E departments, and one thing we are asking is why we are one of the only countries in Europe to have an emergency medicine specialty. Other countries do not do that and ask all doctors to spend time in A and E. We are also considering what we need to do to make A and E a more attractive profession for people to go into, given the antisocial hours that come with the territory. That is not an easy problem to solve, but we recognise that it is incredibly important that we crack it.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

Has the Health Secretary had a chance to pause and reflect on the Government’s decision not to publish the risk register? If so, did the register warn that the reorganisation might have had an adverse effect on A and E performance?

[Mr Hunt]

As I recall, the risk register for that period found its way into the public domain. As for our publishing the risk register, we are following exactly the same policies as the hon. Gentleman’s Government followed in office. They refused to publish that register for the simple reason that officials need to be able to give Ministers frank advice in private if Ministers are to do their job properly. That is why we have not changed the policy.

[Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)]

The Royal Bournemouth hospital accident and emergency department treats 70,000 patients a year. Will my right hon. Friend explain how it can possibly be in the interests of those patients for that department to be downgraded to a minor injuries unit?

[Mr Hunt]

The changes that my hon. Friend alludes to are locally driven and have not crossed my desk. I want to reassure him that if they do cross my desk, I would not approve them unless there was convincing evidence that that was in the interests of patients and there had been proper consultation.

[Dame Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

Having been defeated in the High Court by the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign, the Secretary of State has decided to appeal that decision. Given the crisis in A and E in London, has he any new ideas as to how A and E services should be provided in Lewisham, and if so, will he share them with the local MPs?

[Mr Hunt]

We are determined to do what is right for the people of Lewisham and of south London. Let me be clear: the problems of South London Healthcare NHS Trust were not addressed by the right hon. Lady’s Government when they were in office. We are addressing them, and sometimes those decisions are difficult, and sometimes they are not popular with local people. I took the decision that I did because it will save about 100 lives a year. I think it was the right decision, and I want to ensure that I do the right thing by her constituents.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

The extra £10 million for the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust to deal with winter pressures is very welcome. Sir Jonathan Michael and his team have already made it very clear that they will open a significant number of new beds this winter and take on a significant number of new members of staff. The Oxfordshire clinical commissioning group is already working hard on enhancing primary triage, so that fewer people have to go to A and E. Would it not be better if we just let NHS managers—the NHS—get on with this, rather than the Opposition continuously shroud-waving every winter, in the hope there might be some failing that could shore up their flagging opinion polls?

[Mr Hunt]

We have not heard any kind of policy from the Opposition today, or any suggestion as to what they would do differently. We have presented to the House a package of short-term and long-term measures, designed to address the immediate and the underlying challenges. It is a very comprehensive package, but it is going to be a very tough winter and I would urge all responsible politicians from all parties to row in behind the package, which I think will make a very big difference on the front line.

[Mr Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) (Lab)]

If the 2004 GP contract was to blame for the current crisis in A and E, could the Secretary of State explain why, in 2009-10, over 98% of patients were seen within four hours?

[Mr Hunt]

That contract set in train a process whereby it became easier and easier to access an A and E department, and harder and harder to access a local GP. Since that period we have had, I think, 3 million more people going to A and E every year than was the case at the time of that contract change. That is one of the underlying problems. It will take time, but we shall put that problem right.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

I recently spent the whole evening on the night shift of the A and E at Colchester general hospital, and I do not recognise what we have heard from the Labour Front Bench today. As the Secretary of State is keen on alternatives to A and E, may I urge him to work with the Secretary of State for Education and implement first aid training as part of the school curriculum? Within a generation, we would have 1 million qualified first-aiders. That is one way of reducing unnecessary visits to A and E.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend has campaigned regularly on this subject and there is a lot of merit in what he says. We do need more young people to know the basics of first aid, and that can be extremely important—even life-saving. But we also need to ensure that the NHS is there when we need it, 24/7, and that is why we need to make some important changes to the way in which A and E departments operate, in both the short term and the long term.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Twenty-four thousand elderly people died last winter due to cold-related illnesses, and many of them had been referred to A and E departments. What specific assurances will the Minister make to vulnerable elderly people, who really dread the onset of winter?

[Mr Hunt]

That is what today’s announcement is all about. We are trying to reassure them that we are leaving no stone unturned, and where there are things that we can do in the short term, we are doing those things because we want every older person to feel confident that their NHS will be there for them—that their local A and E department will be able to cope with the additional pressures that develop every winter. But I would also say to them that where there are alternatives to A and E departments, people should consider those as well. That is why some of the measures that we are investing in are good alternatives to A and E, which can often give more appropriate treatment.

[Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Hospital staff have acted with extraordinary enthusiasm to, as they put it, reboot Medway following the Keogh review. Can the Secretary of State confirm that the £6 million or so extra that he may provide to help our A and E should be in addition to anything that the clinical commissioning group might otherwise have agreed to provide?

[Mr Hunt]

Yes, I am happy to confirm that it is additional money. I thank my hon. Friend for the interest that he shows in his local hospital, which is going through a very challenging time. We are absolutely determined that where hospitals are failing or delivering inadequate care, we will not sit on those problems; we will expose them and deal with them. That is the best thing we can do for my hon. Friend’s constituents and people all over the country where there are, unfortunately, problems with local hospitals.

[Mr John Denham (Southampton, Itchen) (Lab)]

In the last year, the A and E target was missed at Southampton hospital in 38 of 52 weeks. Since I last raised that in the House, Monitor has gone in to investigate the governance of the hospital, yet no money has been made available by the Secretary of State in today’s announcement. Is that not a sign that the crisis is so big that he has only been able to give a limited amount of help to those places that have an even worse crisis than we have in Southampton?

[Mr Hunt]

The pressure exists throughout the NHS. The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: there is real pressure in all hospitals. I commend all A and E departments for their hard work. The ones that got additional resources today were the 53 local health economies where we thought the risks were highest, and I think it was right to target that money to help those areas, but that is not to say that there is not a lot of pressure in other areas. That is why the long-term changes that we are talking about—the transformation in IT systems, the increased availability of GPs to look after frail and vulnerable older people, the integration of health and social care services—will benefit the right hon. Gentleman’s constituents and his hospital profoundly, and I am sure he will notice the difference.

[Angie Bray (Ealing Central and Acton) (Con)]

I welcome the extra money for Ealing Hospital NHS Trust and North West London Hospitals NHS Trust. It will come in very useful indeed. However, my right hon. Friend will be aware that four hospitals in North West London are still under threat of losing their A and Es. The independent review into that decision is due to report to his Department very shortly. When are we likely to get a final decision from him?

[Mr Hunt]

Let me reassure my hon. Friend. First, I thank her for her assiduous campaigning for her local hospital, which is recognised on both sides of the House. I am expecting that report on Friday, and as the House knows, when it comes to issues of hospital reconfigurations, I want to make decisions as quickly as I can. I will want to consider it very carefully, but I think everyone would like the certainty of knowing what will happen, so I will report to the House as soon as I am able to make a decision.

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

Hospitals across the north-east, as in many parts of the country, are facing considerable pressure on their A and E departments. Will the Secretary of State set out in more detail the rationale used to allocate the funding? I notice that not a single NHS trust in the north-east appears on his list.

[Mr Hunt]

The decision on which 53 areas to concentrate the resources was not made by me; it was made by NHS England, talking to Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority, on the basis of where, in their professional assessment, the highest-risk areas are. That is a sign that hospitals in the north-east are performing extremely well. In the past few months I have visited Newcastle, and I thought the hospital was absolutely fantastic; I did a stint on the front line there. There are some outstanding hospitals across the country, and there is very good NHS provision in the north-east. That is probably the reason.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

I wish my right hon. Friend well in his quest to reintegrate a fragmented service —a trend which was largely started under the previous Government—but given the fact that the ambulance service provides a very good bolster, and indeed support, and helps to remove pressure from many A and E departments, how much of the £500 million will be made available to support ambulance services in their support of A and E departments?

[Mr Hunt]

Quite a lot of the money will help ambulance services indirectly because it will be intended to reduce the number of blue light calls by, for example, providing primary care alternatives to A and E by better integrating health and social care economies, but the long-term change that we announced last week, which I think will make a real difference to ambulance trusts, involves IT. In this day and age it is crazy that an ambulance can answer a 999 call and go to someone’s home not knowing that they are a diabetic who has mild dementia and who had some falls last year. That information could be incredibly helpful to paramedics and we want to make sure that, with patients’ consent, they have it at their fingertips.

[Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab)]

The A and E at the Wolverhampton New Cross hospital is already under great pressure and earlier this year had its busiest day in history, but what really concerns local people are the possible implications of the closure of the A and E at Mid Staffs and the transfer of the work to New Cross. Can the Secretary of State confirm that if that goes ahead, New Cross hospital will have the resources in terms of capital and staff to make it work, because the alternative will be a second-class service for patients in both Wolverhampton and Staffordshire?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the interest and support that he shows for his local hospital. Of course, Mid Staffs has an extremely troubled history and it would be a derogation of my duties if I did not try to sort out the problems there once and for all, but we will not make any changes that have knock-on effects on neighbouring trusts without proper assessment and making sure that provisions are in place so that they can cope with any additional pressures. The final decision about what is going to be done has not been made, but I reassure the right hon. Gentleman on that point.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

The A and E crisis in Wycombe results from the closure of the department under the previous Government. Although I would love to lay the blame squarely on Labour, is not the truth that, over the life of the NHS, clinical practice and management have changed substantially? Will my right hon. Friend consider producing a White Paper that takes a holistic view of emergency and out-of-hours care so that we can have an A and E service that is fit for the 21st century?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend has campaigned as hard as anyone in the House for more personalised and humane care for his constituents, and he is right. We need a radical rethink about the way that A and E departments work. My only hesitation in leaping to accept his suggestion of a White Paper is that that process takes a very long time. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is in the middle of a review and I want him to be able to report back. I hope that we can get support across the House for what he says so that we can implement his solutions much sooner than that White Paper process would allow.

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State may be holding on to some sort of misplaced belief that he did the right thing with regard to Lewisham. However, the High Court judgment in the summer ruled and found him to have acted unlawfully in taking the decision to slash services at Lewisham in order to solve financial problems elsewhere. Rather than wasting more taxpayers’ money in appealing against this judgment further, why will he not allow local health care professionals to determine the future shape of acute services in south-east London to meet the needs of the community and not just the needs of NHS accountants?

[Mr Hunt]

I know that the hon. Lady has campaigned assiduously and determinedly for her constituents. Even though we have different views, I hope she will understand that at every stage I have taken the decisions, often difficult decisions politically, that I think will best serve her constituents and the people of Lewisham. I accepted the advice of the medical director of the NHS that that decision on Lewisham would save a significant number of lives. That is why I took that decision. As to what we do going forward, I will continue to do what I think is the right thing for her constituents. If she does not agree with the decisions I make, I hope she will at least show greater respect for the motives behind them.

[Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)]

I have discussed with my right hon. Friend on many occasions the issues facing Croydon University hospital. I am very grateful for the £4.5 million that has been announced today. May I ask him both to look kindly on the bid for capital investment for the A and E department there, and to pay tribute to the doctors and nurses in my A and E department and others across the country who are working so hard under such pressure?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. It cannot be said enough how hard A and E staff in particular work—antisocial hours in very challenging conditions. Many hon. Members will have seen that in their local hospitals. With respect to the capital allocations, I hope that the House has a sense from today that we are looking to solve the long-term problems facing A and E departments, as well as giving immediate help for this winter and next winter, so of course we will look carefully at the business case put forward by his local hospital for capital.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

The Royal College of Physicians, the College of Emergency Medicine and others have already come up with a 10-point plan for what to do about emergency care. That is the professional view. When will the Secretary of State act on it?

[Mr Hunt]

The royal colleges have come up with a number of important and good ideas. I hope that the hon. Lady has seen from my announcement today that we are making some profound changes to address the underlying problems in A and E which incorporate much of their thinking, but there are other ideas. We will continue to engage closely with the royal colleges because they can give us a lot of help in ensuring that we get the right answer.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

Wellingborough’s nearest A and E is Kettering general hospital, which is 30 minutes or more for most of my constituents to get to. However, the proposal for an urgent care centre at the Isebrook hospital in Wellingborough will allow 40% of those constituents to go locally and relieve pressure on Kettering. Is this the sort of thing that the Secretary of State wants to encourage?

[Mr Hunt]

I always try to support the ideas that come up from different parts of the NHS because people on the ground usually have the best ideas about what needs to be done, but when decisions cross my desk it is important that I consider the knock-on effect on other areas, and I get independent advice on that as well. I shall follow closely the proposal that my hon. Friend mentions.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State believe that he has done enough to avoid a crisis in A and E this winter?

[Mr Hunt]

I think we have done everything we can, and we have tried to listen hard to the suggestions for what can help in the short term and what can address the underlying problems. I believe it is possible for the NHS to meet its targets this winter, but I do not want to say that it is going to be easy. It will be a very tough winter and we need to get behind the doctors and nurses on the front line who are doing their very best to deliver a great service to the public.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

I welcome the extra £4.5 million for the Derby hospitals trust. On a separate matter, can the Secretary of State reassure my constituents that if they ring 111 they will now get a quality service that gives them the advice they need?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning the support that we are giving to Derby, which I hope will be a great help over this winter and next winter. Improving 111 is an important part of the long-term solution for A and E. If there is one thing that could persuade people not to go to their local A and E, it is to pick up the phone and get a good service. We have 92% satisfaction rates with 111 now, after the teething problems earlier in the year, but I think it can be even better. One of the things that would make the biggest difference is if we did something that has never happened before, which is to make it possible for doctors at the end of the 111 lines to access people’s medical records, with their consent. Then people would be talking to someone who knew about them, their allergies and their medical history. That is a big change. It never happened under the previous Government. Their attempts—[Interruption.] NHS Direct had no access to people’s medical records, which is what we are talking about. That would be a profound change and could make a big difference.

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

It appears that the Secretary of State is not listening to the Health Committee, which has looked into the issue. The Chair, the right hon. Member for Charnwood (Mr Dorrell), has made it clear that he does not think the 2004 GP contract is to blame for these issues, but we found out that only 16% of hospital trusts have the recommended level of emergency consultants, and we noted that nearly £2 billion has been taken out of adult social care. When will the Secretary of State deal with the staffing cuts and budget issues that are actually causing the A and E crisis?

[Mr Hunt]

My right hon. Friend said to the House that he largely agreed with the changes that I wanted to make to the GP contract. I always listen very carefully to what the Select Committee says, but I point out to the hon. Lady what Professor Keith Willett, who is the person at NHS England who is in charge of all A and E departments, said. He said that between 15% and 30% of the people attending A and E departments could be looked after by primary care. If we ignore that—I am afraid that what Labour did in 2004 has made the problem a great deal worse—we will not solve the underlying problems with A and E.

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the additional £2.7 million for Milton Keynes hospital, which will help address short-term pressures this winter, but, looking at the longer term, I urge my right hon. Friend to look again at the case that I and my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster) and the Milton Keynes Citizen have been making for an expanded A and E centre in Milton Keynes to meet the needs of a vastly increasing population.

[Mr Hunt]

I congratulate my hon. Friend and his Milton Keynes colleague on their assiduous and regular conversations with me on the pressures on their A and E. I recognise that it is operating way above its original planned capacity and hope that today’s announcement will make some difference, but we will continue to look at long-term solutions because we recognise that there are long-term pressures.

[Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

In view of the continuing and worsening crisis in A and E, will the Secretary of State concede that closing four out of nine A and E departments and 500 beds at Charing Cross hospital is now unsustainable? Will he abandon those plans, or at least suspend them until the crisis is over?

[Mr Hunt]

I take issue with the hon. Gentleman’s suggestion that this is a worsening crisis in A and E. We have hit our A and E target for the last 22 weeks. We recognise that there are real pressures and are seeking to address them. On the proposals for north-west London, he knows that I cannot comment until I have received the Independent Reconfiguration Panel’s advice. I will look at it very carefully, but obviously, considering the pressures on A and E departments across the country, I will want to ensure that any proposed solution makes sure that his constituents get the service they need when it comes to urgent and emergency care.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

I welcome the £1.5 million for Airedale hospital in Yorkshire and urge the Secretary of State to keep a watchful eye on those hospitals serving some of the most rural parts of our country, such as the Yorkshire dales, which I represent.

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely. I have visited Airedale hospital, which I think is excellent. It is one of the few hospitals in the country where the A and E department has access to GP records, which means it can give patients a much better service. It also has fantastically innovative ways of looking after the frail elderly in the community. I think that some of the smaller rural hospitals are blazing a trail when it comes to the changes we need to make elsewhere.

[Andy Sawford (Corby) (Lab/Co-op)]

Kettering general hospital’s A and E department was built for 20,000 people a year but is now trying to meet the needs of 80,000 people. The money announced today is of course welcome, but I ask the Secretary of State to look seriously at our bid—a joint bid from neighbouring MPs too—for capital investment in Kettering’s A and E.

[Mr Hunt]

I will of course look at that closely. I have been to Kettering hospital and recognise that it is very busy and that people there are working very hard, but I think that the staff are doing a fantastic job.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend pledge to do everything in his power to undo the mess created by Labour’s 2004 GP contract give-away in order to help restore the essential link between patients and family doctors, which will lead to better patient outcomes and reduce pressure on our A and E departments?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am astonished that the Labour party seeks to defend those changes to the GP contract, which got rid of named GPs, removed responsibility for out-of-hours services from them and broke the personal responsibility that the best GPs always wanted to feel for the people on their list. In fact, many brave practices refused to go along with those contract changes and continue to have named GPs. There is clear evidence that people who have named GPs use hospital services less. If we are going to give older people the right care, we need to undo those damaging changes.

[Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Secretary of State has spoken confidently about how his changes will make a difference in the short term, but over the weekend the BBC revealed that A and E departments are, on average, 10% understaffed and that one trust in London is 75 nurses down. Despite what he has announced today, how can he be sure that those vacancies can be filled?

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is right that there are staff shortages, and it is not because trusts do not want to employ people; it is because it is difficult to find people to fill all those vacancies. Those are some of the longer-term problems that we will have to address when looking at how to make working in A and E more attractive. There are a number of things we can do in the short term to alleviate the pressure, such as putting GPs on the front desks at A and E departments so that people can get help, ensuring that the social care system is open seven days a week so that people can be discharged on Saturdays and Sundays, and extending consultant cover late into the evenings and at weekends, when A and E departments are busiest. I think that it is right that we do those things straight away while trying to address the longer-term problems.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

My constituents depend on A and E services in Shropshire, which in many cases are already a long way distant. Does my right hon. Friend agree that when reorganisation takes place, which will happen in Shropshire, proper account should be taken of the distances that people living in rural areas will have to travel for emergency and urgent services?

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely agree. It is really important that we recognise those challenges in rural areas, and indeed semi-rural areas such as my constituency, where we have had similar issues. I can assure my hon. Friend that when we make structural changes, we take those issues closely into account.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

How many walk-in centres have been closed since May 2010?

[Mr Hunt]

I do not have the figure at my fingertips, but I will happily write to the hon. Gentleman.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I would like to praise very highly the A and E staff at Luton and Dunstable hospital, whose work I have seen at close quarters on a number of recent occasions. If A and E staff had access to GP records, would there not be better diagnosis and would not time be saved? If some of our smaller hospitals are doing that, it raises the question why all of them are not.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The truth is that many in the NHS had their fingers burnt when the previous Government, with the best of intentions, tried to address the problem, unfortunately with abysmal results and billions of pounds wasted. I do not think that we should let that failure stop us doing what we know can transform services. When we look at the changes that have been made in the banking, airline and retail industries, we see that we need to use the benefits of modern technology in the NHS. It will save thousands of lives.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

How could any Secretary of State imagine that it is okay to preside over a situation in which there are only five consultants working overnight in A and Es across the entire country?

[Mr Hunt]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that consultant cover is not as good as it needs to be, and not just in A and E departments, but across NHS hospitals, so I hope that he will support me in moving forward with a seven-day NHS, which is a very big change and might be opposed by people working in the NHS. I am delighted that I can be assured of his support.

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that putting patients first is at the heart of this and that that means, in part, ensuring that they can navigate the system and go to places such as the excellent Vale community hospital in Dursley where appropriate?

[Mr Hunt]

I am delighted to hear about the excellent Vale community hospital in Dursley. On my hon. Friend’s general point, we have not been good at persuading the public that there is anything between GP surgeries and A and E departments. The NHS has tried repeatedly to come up with walk-in centres and urgent care centres. Some have been successful, and some have not. At the heart of the challenge is the fact that the public want a 24/7 service for accidents and emergencies and urgent care. We have to ensure that they have it and that they understand where it is.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

Last year, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust both missed their A and E waiting targets on 30 out of 35 weeks. This year, of course, they will be coping with the additional challenge of absorbing the fallout of the downgrading of the A and E at Trafford general hospital. I note that neither trust has been awarded additional funding today. Can the Secretary of State assure me that the risk model that NHS England applied has properly taken account of the consequences of having to absorb major organisational change and, if it turns out that there are more pressures on those A and E departments this winter, that provisional funding will be looked at again?

[Mr Hunt]

I can absolutely reassure the hon. Lady on that point. We are extremely careful—I have had good discussions with her about this—before making any structural changes, to ensure that the impact on neighbouring A and E departments is properly thought through. Since the statement to the House about Trafford hospital, we have approved a capital funding programme for one of the neighbouring hospitals that will be affected. That is extremely important and we will continue to monitor it closely.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

The A and E unit that my constituents have to access is at East Surrey hospital, and I welcome last year’s investment of £4 million to refurbish it, but does my right hon. Friend agree that Labour’s closure of Crawley A and E in 2005 certainly did not help with the pressure on local A and E departments?

[Mr Hunt]

A number of things have contributed to these changes, one of which is that we have not succeeded, as an NHS or as a Parliament, in getting the way in which we do reconfigurations right: they do not command the confidence of the public and people are not satisfied that there are alternatives that they can trust or that good alternatives will be put in place when a change is proposed. We need to learn the lessons from what happened in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

Since 2010 the new Whiston hospital has seen an increase of 25% in emergency demand, but it has not been funded for it. I met the chief executive and vice-chair of the governing board last Friday and asked them whether they would be able to guarantee a safe service if that level of activity continues with the winter pressures, and they said that they might not. Will the Secretary of State urgently look at the situation at Whiston and come up with some solutions?

[Mr Hunt]

I hope that when the hon. Gentleman looks at today’s announcement it will reassure him that we are addressing not just the immediate pressures in the most difficult areas, but the underlying pressures. That 25% increase at Whiston—I pay tribute to the staff in its A and E department, who will no doubt be working extremely hard to cope with it—has come about because we have not had better alternatives to A and E and because departments have often found it difficult to discharge people from hospital into the community, which has further increased the pressure on them. What we have announced in the past few months and today will make a real difference to alleviating those pressures.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will be aware that Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow is an outstanding hospital with outstanding staff. My constituents will be incredibly grateful for the £5.7 million announced today, which comes on top of a £470,000 grant provided to St Clare hospice by the Minister of State, Department of Health, the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), who has responsibility for care. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that shows that this Government invest in the NHS in Harlow, and will he come to Princess Alexandra hospital to see the excellent work that is being done?

[Mr Hunt]

I would be delighted to go to Princess Alexandra hospital, where I am sure the work is indeed excellent. I agree with my hon. Friend’s fundamental point, which is that this Government took the very difficult decision not just to protect the NHS budget, but to increase it. That was described as irresponsible by the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham). We are spending £600 million more in real terms this year than we would have spent if we had followed his advice. That makes a very big difference to hospitals such as that in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State be clear: did the risk register warn the Government that their reorganisation would hit the A and E performance targets?

[Mr Hunt]

There has been exhaustive analysis of the problems in A and E departments and whenever I have visited such departments I have not heard a single person say that the reorganisation was the cause of them. What they talk about is the underlying problems, which we are addressing today.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Despite the best efforts of its hard-working staff, the A and E department at Kettering general hospital has been under huge pressure for some time. It has failed to meet its targets and the chief executive resigned recently as a result. Would my right hon. Friend be kind enough to confirm the amount of additional funding to the A and E department at Kettering, and what is his assessment of the analysis that up to a third of those who present themselves to A and E departments could receive better, quicker and more appropriate treatment elsewhere?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend has campaigned assiduously for Kettering hospital, including by inviting me there to see it for myself. I think that its staff are working extremely hard. I am pleased to confirm that today’s announcement means that an extra £3.9 million will be given to the hospital to help it meet those pressures over this winter. I think that the people working in A and E would be the first to say that where there are alternatives in the community, they should be used. The long-term change we need to make is to reverse what has happened over the past decade, which is that it has become easier and easier to go to an A and E department and harder and harder to get an appointment with a GP. That was the profoundly wrong change made by the previous Government and that is what we have to put right.

[Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Secretary of State will be aware that the major reason given for the reconfiguration of services at Chase Farm hospital was the need to increase the number of consultants and specialist staff in accident and emergency, but we discovered over the weekend, as colleagues have indicated, that there is a massive shortage of specialist staff and consultants, particularly in outer London, where there are special pressures. The Secretary of State has indicated some of the short-term measures, but my constituents want reassurance that steps will be taken to bolster the number of A and E consultants and specialist staff to look after them.

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that that is one of the key issues in the underlying pressures on A and E departments. About a quarter of the money announced today will be used to increase the capacity of A and E departments, including increasing consultant cover. In the end, however, we need more trained consultants; we need more doctors who want to work in A and E departments. That is a longer-term challenge, but one of the ways in which we will make A and E more attractive is by convincing doctors that we have a long-term, sustainable strategy to make sure that it does not become an impossible job. That is what the measures on improving GP access, IT systems and the social care system aim to achieve.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

The Secretary of State may be interested to know that in a parliamentary seminar earlier this year the College of Emergency Medicine said that walk-in centres provided temporary help with A and E attendances but that their closure has had no impact at all. More importantly, does my right hon. Friend agree that we should praise those hospital trusts that have not needed extra money and that that is a ringing endorsement of their leadership?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend speaks extremely wisely, as ever. She is right. The reason why the 100 or so hospitals that have not benefited today did not get money is that our assessment is that they have outstanding leadership and will be able to cope. That is not, however, to minimise the pressure they will be under or the fact that it will be extremely hard work. I pay tribute to them because, as good hospitals, they often have to deal with more people wanting to go through their doors than through those of other hospitals with less good reputations. We need to support everyone and my hon. Friend is right to say so.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

One pressure that applies equally in Wales and in England is that on the recruitment of consultants for A and E. Last year, Welsh health boards advertised for 14 A and E consultants but managed to appoint only one, and that was after a nine-month interregnum. May I urge the Secretary of State—this has been impressed on me many times by those who work in the NHS—to speak to the Minister for Immigration, because many trusts and hospitals are saying that the new operation of the immigration rules makes it impossible to recruit from overseas, even from countries that deliberately train for the international market?

[Mr Hunt]

We have designed the immigration rules so that they are flexible enough to make sure that NHS hospitals can recruit trained staff where they are needed and where we cannot find people with those skills in the UK. I say to the hon. Gentleman that although some challenges may be the same in England and Wales, one challenge is very different in Wales, because Labour there decided to cut the budget by 8%, which has made life a great deal harder for NHS trusts.

[Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)]

Since May 2010 an extra 300 clinical staff are working at the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, which is now recruiting more nurses and more A and E consultants in response to the Keogh review. Does that not show that under this Government more resources are being directed towards front-line patient care?

[Mr Hunt]

It absolutely does. There are nearly 4,000 more front-line staff under this Government than there were under the previous Government at the time of the last election. More importantly, where there are problems in hospitals—my hon. Friend’s hospital has had a number of problems—this Government are not sitting on them or seeking to cover them up. We are addressing them and I hope that by the time of the next election we will be able to demonstrate that we have turned around my hon. Friend’s hospital and a number of others and that finally these serious problems are being addressed.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking A and E staff at the Great Western hospital for their hard and successful work? Will he assure me that, if hospitals such as the GWH and the Royal Berkshire just down the M4 corridor incur any additional needs this winter, there is contingency in the budget?

[Mr Hunt]

We do have a contingency built into these plans, but it is also important for trusts to plan in advance. One of the reasons why we announced this funding in August and why we have today announced where it will go is in order to enable people to make long-term plans. The lesson we have learned from previous years is that if we come up with these packages in the middle of winter it is too late for anything to happen. I totally join my hon. Friend in commending the hard work at Great Western hospital.