New Hospital Programme Review

Lord Mott Excerpts
Tuesday 28th January 2025

(2 days, 23 hours ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Mott Portrait Lord Mott (Con)
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My Lords, I welcome the £102 million that the Minister referred to for the upgrade to GP estates. May I ask how many of those will be in Cambridgeshire? Has any assessment been made of the pressure that the upgrade of those GP estates will take off the NHS? The Minister said that often people cannot get a GP appointment and therefore tend to go to A&E. Has any assessment been made of how much pressure will be taken off and, more importantly, the quality of care given to people who are able to go to their local GP instead of having often to go to A&E?

Baroness Merron Portrait Baroness Merron (Lab)
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While I cannot answer exactly on Cambridgeshire, which the noble Lord raises, I can say that the department and NHS England are working with integrated care boards to ensure that there is a priority on high-impact projects where investment will unlock all the things we are all looking for, which are significant productivity gains and additional usable space from existing buildings. Of course, ICBs are responsible for that. I perhaps should also make the point that this is the first dedicated national capital fund for primary care since 2020. The noble Lord rightly quoted me back about the benefits of investing in GP practice. We are probably all familiar with that. There have been a number of reviews, including, of course, the independent review of the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, which spoke to the point about the need for capital investment in primary care.