NHS Winter Crisis

Lord Framlingham Excerpts

Monday 8th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

First, I join the noble Baroness by reiterating on a personal basis a tribute to the staff who have worked so hard over this period. I think we all know many of those people, and they do an extraordinary job. Social care is clearly a really important part of the picture because it is not just the flows into hospitals but the flows out. A lot of that is to do with delayed transfers of care. That is one reason why additional funding has been going in—I think it is £1 billion this year. It is important to point out that all local authorities have now signed up to plans to reduce what are called DToCs, in the jargon. DToCs have been falling, which means that there is the opportunity to get people out of hospital. That could be into a care home or residential care or it could be to their own home.

[Lord Framlingham (Con)]

My Lords, the disastrous white elephant which is HS2 will cost a minimum of £60 billion. The NHS needs £5 billion to balance the books, and a fraction of HS2’s cost would provide finance for the NHS for years to come. I urge the Minister to please urge the Government to scrap HS2 and spend the money saved on sensible projects, with the NHS at the top of the list.