Accident and Emergency Departments

John Denham Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Yes, I am happy to confirm that it is additional money. I thank my hon. Friend for the interest that he shows in his local hospital, which is going through a very challenging time. We are absolutely determined that where hospitals are failing or delivering inadequate care, we will not sit on those problems; we will expose them and deal with them. That is the best thing we can do for my hon. Friend’s constituents and people all over the country where there are, unfortunately, problems with local hospitals.

[Mr John Denham (Southampton, Itchen) (Lab)]

In the last year, the A and E target was missed at Southampton hospital in 38 of 52 weeks. Since I last raised that in the House, Monitor has gone in to investigate the governance of the hospital, yet no money has been made available by the Secretary of State in today’s announcement. Is that not a sign that the crisis is so big that he has only been able to give a limited amount of help to those places that have an even worse crisis than we have in Southampton?

[Mr Hunt]

The pressure exists throughout the NHS. The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: there is real pressure in all hospitals. I commend all A and E departments for their hard work. The ones that got additional resources today were the 53 local health economies where we thought the risks were highest, and I think it was right to target that money to help those areas, but that is not to say that there is not a lot of pressure in other areas. That is why the long-term changes that we are talking about—the transformation in IT systems, the increased availability of GPs to look after frail and vulnerable older people, the integration of health and social care services—will benefit the right hon. Gentleman’s constituents and his hospital profoundly, and I am sure he will notice the difference.