NHS: Working Hours

(asked on 14th October 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number and cost of extra doctors, nurses, therapists and diagnostic staff required for seven-day working in the NHS.


This question was answered on 23rd October 2015

The Government is investing £10 billion in the NHS Five Year Forward View which includes developing a framework for how seven day services can be delivered sustainably and affordably, where this makes a clinical difference to outcomes.


Implementing seven day services will involve different approaches in different areas, not least because current levels of service provision at weekends currently vary between hospitals. All areas will implement in the way that makes sense for them, minimising additional costs and maximising opportunities for using existing resources better.

It will be for local providers and their Local Education and Training Boards to develop workforce plans for delivering seven day services in hospitals which will make the best use of staff skills and expertise. There may be additional staff needed, including doctors, and the Department is working with NHS England and Health Education England to make sure we have the workforce we need, including looking at new working patterns and roles such as physician associates.

In order to provide safe, high-quality urgent and emergency care services seven days a week, NHS England recommended that hospitals prioritise implementation of four of the 10 clinical standards agreed by their ‘NHS Services, Seven Days a Week’ Forum. These ensure that patients who have urgent and emergency hospital care needs will have access to the same level of consultant assessment and review, diagnostic tests and consultant-led interventions seven days a week. The Government will ensure that by March 2017 a quarter of the population will have access to care that meets these standards and, by March 2020, there will be complete coverage for the whole of England. This means that hospitals will have to increase their provision of services in key specialties at the weekend if they are not currently meeting these standards.


Although we are prioritising the standards which will have the biggest impact on improving patient care at weekends, we expect all hospitals to work towards embedding all ten clinical standards by 2020.

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