NHS: Financial Tariff for 2015-16

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, no, Choose and Book will not be affected, although NHS England has plans to update it to make it a much richer and more informative system.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, given the appalling performance of ambulance services—certainly in London, and, I suspect, in the rest of the country—what steps are the Government taking to ensure that the tariff means that people will receive the emergency call-outs that they would expect on the basis of the funding that should be being made available?

[Earl Howe]

This is part and parcel of the discussions going on at the moment. There is a balance of interests here—above all, the interests of NHS patients, but within the system, the interests of those who hold the budget and the interests of those who provide the service. The risks relate, on the one hand, to affordability, and, on the other hand, to financial and service stability, and the need not to sacrifice quality in the process.