NHS: Corridor Care

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Swire (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

We will have the Cross Benches and then we will come to the Conservative Benches.

[Baroness Gerada (CB)]

We know from evidence that you can avoid hospital admission by improving continuity of care by general practitioners. When will the Minister redress the imbalance whereby GPs are funded from only 8% of the NHS budget yet deliver 70% to 80% of its care?

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Swire (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

It is definitely the turn of the Labour Benches. Can noble Lords make up their minds quickly?

[Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)]

My Lords, my recent experience in care homes is that there are vacancies—unfilled beds—in private care homes. When are we going to do something about the mismatch of people in corridors, when beds are available? There needs to be some system introduced to get people into them.