Hospital Beds: Availability

Viscount Waverley Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness is quite right that there is increasing pressure on the health service. There have been 3.5 million more hospital admissions in the last 10 years and 2.4 million more A&E attendances in the last five years, so there is huge extra pressure. The number of acute beds has been dropping for a long time but at a slower rate in more recent years. Clearly, making sure that the right level of community care is available—step-down or interim care between hospital and home—will be incredibly important, particularly with a growing and ageing population.

[Viscount Waverley (CB)]

My Lords, surely enough is enough. Is it not high time for an unfettered look again at the health service—bottom-up rather than top-down, and therefore undertaken not by a royal commission, perhaps, but by an independent body such as the Academy of Medical Sciences?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

A number of investigations and reviews into the future of health and social care are taking place. I quite agree with the noble Lord that a royal commission is not necessary. What we all need to do in government and through the arm’s-length bodies involved in healthcare is to make sure that we are providing the 2.7 million staff, who are doing a brilliant job every day in supporting our health and care services, with the money and assistance they need to continue to deliver world-class healthcare.