National Health Service: Hospital Beds Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Lord Mawhinney
Main Page: Lord Mawhinney (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Mawhinney's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Mawhinney (Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend recall that the previous Government did not run their NHS policy on the basis of the number of beds in the NHS, and rightly so? Will he continue robustly to reject the arguments of those who, using beds as a criterion, are so out of date with modern medicine delivery?
Earl Howe
My noble friend has encapsulated the point very well. One cannot correlate bed numbers as a stark statistic with the quality of care that a health system delivers. Our system is dependent not just on acute settings but on care in the community, and that is where the focus should rightly lie at the moment.