NHS: Out of Hours Service

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Tuesday 26th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

We have known that out-of-hours care has been in need of reform for some considerable time. The much strengthened commissioning arrangements that we have put in place, including the national quality requirements that I mentioned earlier, will enable that to happen.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

The noble Earl will, I am sure, recall the discussion we had just a few days ago about the inspection of patients at home. That discussion was about ensuring that patients at home who were poorly in the evening did not end up in hospital. My noble friend has just indicated the tremendous pressure that all hospitals are under in terms of length of stay because of older people arriving and staying in hospital. If this GP out-of-hours service worked well, we would prevent that. We need to ensure that the accuracy and rigour of that service permeate throughout the whole country.

[Earl Howe]

The noble Baroness is quite right; this is an integral part of good primary care and we are determined to see it joined up with GP practices and the other services on which patients rely.