Ambulance Services and National Heatwave Emergency
Debate between Maria Caulfield and Margaret Greenwood(2 years, 3 months ago)
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Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)
This is a situation that my constituents are desperately worried about. We know that ambulance waiting times were not being met before the pandemic, so this problem has a long background to it, as the Minister knows. We also know that there has been a crisis in A&E waiting times, and in my own hospital of Arrowe Park—a hospital in my constituency—in May this year, almost half of patients had to wait more than four hours.
Given that this problem has been a long time in the making, that the Government have known about it, and that one senior leader in the north of the country who does not want to be named has described the situation as “dire” for staff and patients, can the Minister tell us what the Government are going to do as a matter of urgency to sort it? My constituents are desperately worried about this issue. I have constituents who have lost people because of—well, we cannot say “because of”, but in circumstances that have involved very long ambulance waits, so this issue could not be more important to them. I would like an answer about what the Government are going to do urgently.
Maria Caulfield
There are two aspects to that question. In terms of urgency, we have procured a contract with a total value of £30 million for an auxiliary ambulance service, which will provide national surge capacity if needed to support the ambulance response during periods of increased pressure. That capacity is there, should we need it.
The hon. Lady also talked about long-term plans. We have been investing in the ambulance service since 2010. I talked about the extra paramedics: we are training 3,000 graduates every year to 2024 in order to increase our capacity. We have also made significant investments in the workforce, with an almost 40% increase since February 2010, so we are improving. Sometimes, those changes take time to come through, but we are investing in the workforce, providing more funding and training more paramedics, and we also have an auxiliary ambulance service procured should we need it.
GP Appointment Availability
Debate between Maria Caulfield and Margaret Greenwood(3 years ago)
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Maria Caulfield
My hon. Friend is certainly persistent in his questioning on that issue. It is a decision for the Secretary of State, who is looking at such factors. The vast majority of NHS staff have been vaccinated, for their own protection as much as anything else. I want to highlight that we are increasing the number of primary healthcare professionals across the board, aiming to replicate the model used in hospitals, where a consultant leads a team of multi-disciplinary professionals who will help see a patient and are, sometimes, more expert in dealing with certain clinical situation than GPs themselves.
Margaret Greenwood
I have had GPs talk to me, somewhat frustratedly, about not having sufficient GPs in their surgery and having physician associates who do not have the same level of training. There is a concern that this is a backing-away from the Government’s commitment of 6,000 extra GPs. Could the Minister confirm whether the Government are still committed to 6,000 extra fully qualified, trained GPs?
Maria Caulfield
We are committed to increasing GP numbers, as in our manifesto commitment. However, that does not stop us increasing the numbers of other healthcare professionals. We need to get the message out to patients that seeing a nurse, physio or paramedic at the GP surgery is not second best. These are highly qualified, experienced and educated professionals who often are better placed—though I do not want to upset the shadow Minister—to see a patient than a doctor. They can make a considerable difference, but very often patients feel they are being fobbed off or seeing the second best. We need to do a lot of work to reassure patients on that.
We have already recruited 10,000 of the additional 26,000 staff we stated in our manifesto would be working in general practice by the end of 2023-24. We are strengthening our plans to increase the number of doctors in general practice. To reassure Members, so far we have filled a record number of GP speciality training places this year, with the latest data showing that there are already 1,200 more full-time equivalent doctors in general practice than two years ago. It is a challenge; I am not going to say it is not, but we are making progress.
I feel particularly passionate about the use of community pharmacists. In many other countries, the pharmacist is the first port of call for minor ailments. They are highly qualified professionals with over five years of clinical training who are able to assist patients. Over 800 practices have already signed up to participate in the community pharmacist consultation service, which enables patients to see a pharmacist, on the same day in many cases, to deal with minor conditions. That will not only help patients, but it will free GPs up to see the patients that really need to see them for clinical conditions.