NHS: Accident and Emergency Services Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Tebbit
Main Page: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Tebbit's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(9 years, 7 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, I wonder whether my noble friend will give consideration to helping those people who could not get appointments to see their general practitioners, some of whose surgeries were closed for five days over Christmas, by allowing or encouraging hospitals to set up general practices alongside their A&E departments, which would be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, for people who registered at the hospital general practice. That would mean more funds for the hospital and less funds for the general practices that chose to close up in that manner.
My noble friend has made an extremely important point. I have visited hospitals where that very model has been in place, for example, in Luton, where I went not so long ago. More and more hospitals are adopting this suggestion so that when people turn up at A&E they can be triaged immediately into urgent and less urgent cases, often to be channelled through to the GP service.