NHS: Hospital Beds

Baroness Barker Excerpts

Thursday 6th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

Yes, my Lords. That is the precise reason why there are currently 5,000 midwives in training, which is a record number. The noble Earl is absolutely right to identify the midwifery service as key to enabling children to get a healthy start in life and parents to ensure that children get into good eating and exercise habits.

[Baroness Barker]

My Lords, the Dr Foster report identifies those hospitals which have a high level of inappropriate referrals of older people. Will the department do further research in those areas to see whether there is a correlation between out-of-hours GP services, and the work that they do, and a high level of inappropriate referrals of older people to acute hospitals?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, it is questions of that kind that we expect the clinical commissioning groups to examine because they will become responsible for out-of-hours primary care. Therefore, it is incumbent on them to ensure that that service not only is a good one but does not lead to unwanted consequences in terms of unplanned admissions to hospital.