Health and Social Care Update

Margaret Greenwood Excerpts

Thursday 22nd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Before we proceed, it will be obvious to everyone present that the Secretary of State has now been at the Dispatch Box for an hour—normally, statements run for an hour. I am going to let this one run for a little more than an hour, but I give notice now that not everybody who wishes to speak will have an opportunity to take part. That is simply not practical, so I say two things. First, if you are not very enthusiastic, go now and you will be able to save up your brownie points for tomorrow and the next day. Secondly, the briefer the questions, the more people will get in. I have noticed that the Secretary of State has played the game by giving some very brief answers—thank you.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

I note the Secretary of State’s comments about hospital discharge. As she will know, the Government legislated through the Health and Care Act 2022 for a process known as discharge to assess, whereby people’s social care needs assessments can take place after they have been discharged from hospital, rather than before, and that model was already being used under the Coronavirus Act 2020. However, when I asked the Government last May what assessment they had made of the number of patients who had been readmitted within 30 days, I was told that they did not hold the data centrally. It is vital that the Government understand the clinical outcome of this policy, so will the Secretary of State please commit to gathering and publishing that data?

[Dr Coffey]

I hear what the hon. Lady says, but I will not go specifically into more data. I have set out the approach we will take—particularly looking at the local NHS with local councils—to make sure we discharge more effectively.