Health and Social Care: Winter Update

Preet Kaur Gill Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I confirm that we are absolutely up for looking at co-location of different public services, to deliver both better integration and co-operation between different services—particularly the blue-light services that the hon. Gentleman mentioned—and better value for taxpayers. I will ensure that one of my ministerial colleagues makes contact with him.

[Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham Edgbaston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Health Secretary will know that University Hospitals Birmingham in my constituency recently declared a critical incident, which I am pleased has now been stepped down. Does he share my view that shifting the focus of healthcare from hospital to community as we rebuild our NHS would have a consequential impact on the number of people in hospitals, which are under immense pressure?

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. May I, through her, thank health and care staff in her city for the work they are doing to get the people of Birmingham through this particularly challenging winter? What we really need to do to make our health and care system more effective and more sustainable is shift the centre of gravity out of hospital and into the community. We need better and faster access to diagnostics and treatment, as well as a bigger focus on prevention—primary prevention to keep us all healthy and active, and secondary prevention so that fewer people need to call on health services, and particularly emergency departments, which are stretched at this time of year.