Health and Social Care: Winter Update

Layla Moran Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.

[Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) (LD)]

May I press the Secretary of State on that data point? It is not just the Liberal Democrats making these representations; the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, HealthWatch, the British Medical Association, Age UK and many others also want the data. This matters, because the situation causes moral injury to staff and compromises patient safety—and the problem is not just corridor care; it encroaches on to other wards. Will the Secretary of State commit to releasing that data before the NHS England board meeting on 4 February? In addition, what assessment has he made of the impact of this winter on less urgent care, and on elective waiting lists?

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee for her questions. I cannot give her a commitment to publish those statistics ahead of the next NHS England board, but I can give her an undertaking to go away and look carefully at the rhythm and pace at which we publish performance data, to make sure that we are being as transparent as we can, as fast as we can. That, I think, should be the principle that underpins our approach to the publication of data. She is right to talk about wider system pressures as a result of what we see in emergency departments. We will wait to review the performance of the NHS overall until we exit winter. I think we have seen some effective protection of elective activity throughout this winter, but that will of course vary from provider to provider.

The hon. Member mentioned a whole number of organisations calling for more data transparency. I, too, welcome the very public representations that we have heard from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and others about the need to tackle corridor care. Let me assure her and all those who have made representations that we are absolutely determined to turn this situation around, and not just improve the performance of urgent and emergency care, but get a better system working. Ultimately, it is through ensuring better patient flows, and ensuring that people get the right care in the right place at the right time, that we will finally get this country out of the cycle, created by our Conservative predecessors, of winter crises.