Oral Answers to Questions

Catherine West Excerpts

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. You won’t get your turn if you shout from there.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

4. What steps her Department is taking to reduce pressure on NHS services in winter 2023-24.

[The Minister for Social Care (Helen Whately)]

We know that winter is hard for the NHS, as it is for other health systems. That is why we started planning for this winter earlier than ever before—back in January, when we published our urgent and emergency care recovery plan, which funds more beds and new ambulances for our NHS, funds more social care in our communities, joins up care, and makes the most of technology, so that more people can get the care they need when and where they most need it.

[Catherine West]

Two accident and emergency departments serve patients in Hornsey and Wood Green. One is now serving double the number of visits by patients and is buckling under the pressure; and the other has seen 4,000 extra patients this year compared with last. What are the Government going to do about overcrowding in accident and emergency?

[Helen Whately]

The hon. Member is right that our hospitals are busier; we are seeing more patients in A&Es. That is why we are doing two things with our work on urgent and emergency care. One is providing more capacity—more hospital beds, more hours of ambulances on the road, and more capacity in social care to help with discharges. We are also doing things differently by seeing more people out of hospital, avoiding people coming to hospital unnecessarily, and providing more care at home; for instance, our 10,000 “hospital at home” beds are helping people recover at home, which is better for them and better for the system.