Health and Social Care: Winter Update

Lord Kamall Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, when this Statement was given in the other place last Wednesday, the situation in the NHS had deteriorated: the weekly influenza hospital admission rate for the last week of 2024 increased to 14 per 100,000, with almost 11 per 100,000 being the figure for the previous week. Thankfully, I can see that the rates for influenza admissions are falling: the admission rate for the second week of this year fell to 9.5 per 100,000, compared to more than 13 per 100,000 the previous week.

While this fall in admissions is welcome, may I ask the Minister about the latest advice the Government have received? Do they believe that we are out of the winter woods yet, or are they being warned about the possibility of admission rates for seasonal respiratory viruses rising again, and the need to remain vigilant? Also, do the Government have any indication of whether this improvement is temporary, or whether things will get worse again? If they are planning for a possible rise in admission rates, what plans do they have to put in place sufficient capacity to meet an increase in the number of patients? What options are the Government looking at? For example, are they having conversations with the independent sector on the use of some of its hospital capacity?

One of the solutions, surely, to the winter pressures that successive Governments experience is better and faster data reporting. It can often take several weeks for data from hospitals and the front line to filter through to statistical reports. The problem is that there are data time lags, which means that the NHS has less information ready to figure out the gaps in performance and capability. If the NHS is adequately to plan to alleviate pressures, live data reporting must be a priority.

May I therefore ask the Minister first to commit to pushing forward implementation of faster and more efficient data collection with her departmental colleagues, in order to ensure reporting to help better plan for future winters? In that vein, how confident are the Government that they will learn the lessons from this year’s winter crisis and ensure that they are better prepared for next winter, in order to deliver on their promise to end the cycle of winter crises in the NHS? I look forward to the Minister’s response.