Covid-19: Cancelled Medical Operations

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell [V]]

I should first like to pay tribute to all those who have been involved in setting up the Nightingale hospitals. People have worked extremely hard to deliver a valuable service to the country. Bed allocation arrangements are made by local trusts and testing within the NHS is now intense. Decisions on the traffic of staff between safe zones and non-safe zones are taken by the local director of infection control.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

My Lords, it is important that the Minister informs the House about how beds there are in the private sector, how many were occupied, at what cost and whether there will be a renewal. Does the noble Lord share my concern that if there is a second spike of Covid-19, it will lead to further delays in life-saving operations? What contingency arrangements do the Government have in place for this?

[Lord Bethell [V]]

The noble Baroness is right to raise this concern. The bigger focus is less on the operational restraints, because the NHS has in fact done extremely well to keep the flow of operations going during this period. It is actually on demand. What we are most deeply concerned about is that patients return to hospitals and that their confidence in undertaking procedures is restored. That is why we have put a huge amount of emphasis on the marketing side of things. That is not to understate the importance of the operational side, but it is patient confidence that is our focus at the moment.