Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd March 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ben Gummer)]

The matter of private beds is entirely for the trust to decide, but we are very clear that NHS patients should always come first.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

T3. In the last decade, under the then Labour Government, Crawley hospital saw its accident and emergency and maternity units close. However, I am pleased to say that in recent years we have seen casualty services returning, as well as the introduction of a GP out-of-hours service and a greater number of beds. Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating the NHS staff in my constituency who are working so hard to deliver these new services?

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

I am absolutely delighted to join my hon. Friend in congratulating the staff in his constituency. A&E targets there have been met in the year to date: at the moment they are seeing 36,509 more people in under four hours every year compared with six years ago. The trust is meeting its 18-week target and its diagnostic waiting time target, so that is a very good performance.