Oral Answers to Questions Debate
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Main Page: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)Department Debates - View all Mark Menzies's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(10 years, 7 months ago)
Commons Chamber2. What steps his Department has taken to ease the short and long-term effects of winter pressures on the NHS.
12. What steps his Department has taken to ease the short and long-term effects of winter pressures on the NHS.
In the short term, a record £400 million has been assigned to help the NHS through this winter, with £250 million announced in August, much earlier than before. For the long term, we are restoring the link between GPs and vulnerable older patients by bringing back named GPs for all over-75s—something that was broken in 2004.
My constituency has a high proportion of elderly people. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to reduce admissions of elderly people to hospital this winter?
We are doing a very great deal and the £400 million announced to help the NHS through the winter is a record amount. My hon. Friend will be pleased to know that a lot of that money is being spent not inside A and E departments but in the community to help GP practices, and to try to recognise properly that for many older people—particularly vulnerable people with dementia —a busy A and E department is not the best place to go when something goes wrong, and if we possibly can we should avoid it.