King's College Hospital: Covid-19 Recovery

Gillian Keegan Excerpts

Friday 3rd December 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Care and Mental Health (Gillian Keegan)]

I thank the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for securing a debate on this important issue, which I know is one on which she campaigns regularly. I also thank her for all the work that she has done with the hospital as a member of the trust and for her work in encouraging everybody to come forward for boosters or first vaccinations. I am grateful to her for thanking us for writing off the debts—Government seldom get thanked, so that was wonderful to hear—which I know made a massive difference. At the start of the pandemic, we wrote off £13 billion of debt, supporting 110 hospitals and freeing them up to cope with the unbelievable circumstances they have faced without having to worry too much about the impacts of their debt.

As every Member of this House and the wider public know, covid-19 has had a monumental impact on the NHS, without which we would have all been lost. King’s College Hospital trust has seen an increase in the number of patients waiting for routine procedures and operations, with about 1,000 people waiting more than a year for treatment. That is similar to the national picture, with currently more than 303,000 people waiting more than 52 weeks for treatment and a total waiting list of 5.86 million people, up from 4.4 million before the pandemic. Further, we are seeing impacts on emergency services such as A&E caused by winter pressures and covid-19. King’s College Hospital Trust sees about 69% of people in A&E within four hours, which again reflects the national picture of about 74% of people being seen within four hours.

The trust is now making good, significant progress to reduce waiting lists, with the number of people waiting more than a year for treatment reducing significantly from a high in February 2021 of almost 7,000 patients to about 1,000 now, as I stated. We thank all the teams working on that. The trust has found new and innovative ways of working, including a weekend operating list and greater partnership across local systems. To support that, £3 million has been provided to build an additional modular theatre at Orpington Hospital, which is due to open in the new year. That will certainly help.

Amazing work has also been carried out at the trust on diagnostics. It has seen a reduction in the number of people waiting more than six weeks for a test from 40% in January to 7% in November. Again, our thanks to all the teams involved in that effort. Ministers often read out numbers, but behind those numbers and achievements there is a lot of hard work. We recognise that.

To support the work of King’s College Hospital Trust, since the start of the pandemic it has received £64 million in additional revenue funding to support its covid-19 response, as well as an additional £18.5 million in elective recovery funding. The trust will also receive an additional £18 million of capital funding to complete its critical care unit and increase its overall critical care capacity by 59 beds.

I thank all the staff who work at King’s College Hospital for the work that they have done over the pandemic and since, not just in the areas that I have covered, but in the delivery of the national vaccination programme, during which they have administered more than 250,000 covid-19 vaccines, with I am sure more to come. I add my condemnation of anyone who abuses our wonderful health and social care staff who work so hard to do their best. The last thing they need is abuse from members of the public.

Staff members, led by their chief executive Professor Clive Kay, have given their all during the pandemic. They are at the heart of the effort to build our NHS back better. As such, I am pleased that staff have access to comprehensive staff support programmes, which focus on supporting and building the resilience of teams and provide psychological interventions to staff at high risk of developing mental ill health.

Further, the trust has established a psychological support team and a specific occupational health team to help staff who may be experiencing symptoms of burnout or poor mental health, including bespoke support for staff coping with the symptoms of long covid. We know that the staff have been through an awful lot and we need to provide that support to ensure that we take good care of their mental health.

We are also supporting trusts through national work such as community diagnostic hubs. We have allocated £2.3 billion to increase the volume of diagnostic activity and to roll out at least 100 diagnostic hubs by 2024-25 to clear the backlogs. Those hubs will provide a one-stop shop for diagnostic tests, which will mean that people can have multiple tests in the same place rather than returning for multiple appointments, so it will be much more convenient and efficient. That increase is expected to allow the NHS to carry out an additional 4.5 million scans.

Further, we have given £8 billion over the next three years to step up elective activity and transform elective services. That supports our aim for the NHS to deliver about 30% more elective activity by 2024-25 compared with pre-pandemic levels.

This winter, NHS England and Improvement has led work with NHS providers, regions and stakeholders to ensure that robust operational plans are in place, including plans to meet increases in the demand for emergency care driven by seasonal flu and/or covid-19. We have given it an extra £55 million to boost staff numbers ahead of winter to help to recruit more 999 call handlers and clinicians to work in control rooms and to bolster frontline staffing capacity. We have also invested an extra £98 million in NHS 111 to help to meet increased demand and to boost capacity.

“The health and social care approach to winter” has been published today; we heard the statement earlier from the Minister for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (Edward Argar). That is a joint publication from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement, which sets out the wide range of preparations that we have made to ensure that health and social care services remain resilient, joined up and available to patients over the coming months. It also announces the allocation of the £700 million targeted investment fund.

I thank the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood for the points she made in the debate, which we take on board. We are doing everything we can to support our NHS. I also thank our wonderful NHS staff, and while I am here, our social care staff as well, who continue to work so hard to overcome the problems that the pandemic has created and to look after vulnerable people in their time of need. We remain committed to supporting the NHS, so that we can reduce waiting times and ensure that everybody gets the care that they need.

Question put and agreed to.