Oral Answers to Questions

Rushanara Ali Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

I thank the hon. Lady, because it is the first I have heard of that and it sounds very exciting. I know how difficult it is with chronic wound management to get wounds to heal. Often these are patients with multiple co-morbidities such as diabetes that make the wounds very difficult to treat. I am keen to visit her constituency and her trust to learn more about it.

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)]

11. What steps he is taking to help reduce waiting lists for people transferring to a care setting.

[The Minister for Care and Mental Health (Gillian Keegan)]

I assure the hon. Lady and everybody in the House that this is a key focus for the Department as we know that delayed hospital discharges put pressure on the health and care systems and, most importantly, impact our patients. To address delays, we have established a national hospital discharge taskforce, which is running a 100-day discharge challenge, and integrated care systems can now become discharge front-runners to share good practice and ambitious ideas.

[Rushanara Ali]

I thank the Minister for her answer, but Miriam Deakin of NHS Providers has said:

“There is huge pressure on beds…and a lack of social care capacity means that hospital patients can’t be discharged as soon as they could be to recover closer to home”.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has estimated that 57% who longer meet the criteria are stuck in hospital. That is putting huge pressure on hospitals such as the Royal London in my constituency, which is doing amazing work. However, it cannot get the job done if the Government do not step up and back local authorities with the resources they need to provide care for those who can be discharged. That is what is needed. Is it not time that the Minister, with the new Health Secretary, got to grips with this problem, which has built up over a decade because of the decimation of social care? That is what is needed. There is a fix; the Government need to get on with it.

[Gillian Keegan]

Between March 2020 and March 2022, we made nearly £3.3 billion available to support discharge, recognising the pressures faced by the health and social care sectors, as they manage the demands of covid-19. Under section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006, funding can be pooled across health and social care to ensure the effective use of available resources. That allows funds such as the better care fund to be used to support discharges, and I know that many integrated care systems are focused on doing that and pooling more resources.

--- Later in debate ---

[Steve Barclay]

Again, as I am sure my hon. Friend will appreciate, these decisions should not be run from Whitehall and the centre. We should take a place-based approach, letting local decision-makers and commissioners make the decisions to shape the best services through their integrated care boards. My hon. Friend the Minister of State or I will engage with him to ensure that his representations are very much at the heart of any decisions that are taken.

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)]

T6. An estimated 117,000 people are reported to have died while on NHS waiting lists. A record 6.6 million people are waiting on the NHS for treatment, and they are in pain and suffering and, in many cases, fearful for their lives. This is a direct consequence of more than a decade of mismanagement and incompetence. What will the new Health Secretary do to give the British people the guarantees that they need to make sure that more do not die while waiting for treatment on the NHS?

[Steve Barclay]

That is why we have launched a range of initiatives, such as surgery hubs and diagnostic centres, to address the very real backlog resulting from the pandemic. Indeed, the NHS has published its delivery plan for tackling the covid-19 backlog of elective care, and that is focused on four areas: increasing health service capacity, prioritising diagnosis and treatment, transforming the way that NHS provides elective care, and providing better information and support to patients.