NHS 'Winter Crisis' Statement House of Lords


NHS 'Winter Crisis' Statement

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My lords, I will repeat the

statement that is a response to an

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urgent question given by my friend

the Minister of State for health and

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the Other Place. The statement is as

follows, winter is challenging for

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health services worldwide. With a

high number of flu cases this year

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we have seen an increase in

anti-attendances from flu, triple

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from last year with a high number of

hospital beds occupied as a result

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and a further 700 with the

norovirus. The NHS saw many more

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patients in AMD compared to this

time last year. The guidance issued

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by the preparedness panel to free up

capacity for emergencies given the

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high number of new cases including

two dominant strains of flu could

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circulate in this year. It is

important to remind the House and

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the deferment of operations referred

to in that guidance applied to

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around 13% of hospital beds dealing

with alleged patients around half of

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which were protected with respect to

cancer and other urgent treatments.

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The guidance was up aided on the

26th of January to confirm that the

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deferment of hospital operations is

no longer needed and in terms of the

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impact of this guidance has had on

operations, we will not notice on

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either side of house until mid-March

when that data will be published in

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paste -- and placed in the library

for the benefit of both sides of the

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House.

I thank the Minister for that

statement and can I also, before I

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ask my questions, thank the

Secretary of State and the Prime

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Minister for their response to the

United States president, for his

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bizarre attack on our NHS. My lords,

over 95% of hospital beds were full

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last week, leaving just one bed in

20 available. We saw the highest

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number of AMD favourites -- accident

and emergency favourites. A pager

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beeped to our NHS staff who have

gone the extra mile in challenging

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circumstances. We know that many

elective operations were planned to

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be cancelled but it would seem that

some urgent operations have also

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been cancelled as well so would the

Minister explained to the has what

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is operations having cancel despite

NHS England's advice to the country?

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The accident and emergency targets

which are enshrined in the

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legislation and the Constitution

which are... Will the Government be

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bringing forward legislation to

amend the Constitution? Will be

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accept that don't be winter plans

have been outlined, that these are

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now being compromised in the light

of at least 23 trusts, who are now

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on black alert which means that they

are under severe pressure.

My lords,

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I think the noble lady for her

question. I agree with her that we

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are all proud of our NHS on all

sides of this has and I am sure we

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had great pleasure in stating that

in which ever means we were required

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to. I would also like to join her in

paying tribute to the staff who do

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such great work in challenging

circumstances. On the two questions,

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first about urgent operations. It

was clear in the guidance that they

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should not be cancelled when it

affected patient outcomes. If that

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has happened then NHS England is

investigating and reinstating this

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operations and the guidance is quite

clear and NHS England has followed

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that. In terms of A&E targets being

achieved, we noted the targets have

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not been achieved recently and it is

important and instructive I think to

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look at the extraordinary increase

not just a mentor but overall in the

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number of episodes that are

happening, they are really going up

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at a very high level, demand is

higher than I think could have been

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anticipated and it is a credit to

the NHS that is per free sing --

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producing the performance that it

has.

My lords, this morning I

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visited a suburban lot -- suburban

Hospital in London with an almost

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brand-new A&E unit but despite all

of that they were still facing 97%

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bed occupancy on Sundays which is

really stretching

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the patients to actually make this

work. Money was clearly an issue.

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They were really quite anxious about

the end of year and what their

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accounts might look like. Today, the

Liberal Democrats launched a report

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looking again at a different way of

funding the NHS, the creation of an

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Office for Budget Responsibility for

health and care, long-term health

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and care funding, a ring fenced tax

placing national insurance, but also

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in the short-term, and there is a

clear need for some sort of

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short-term fix, £2 billion to paid

for from income tax by adding a

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penny to our income tax and I wonder

whether the Minister has actually

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look at this report and whether he

would actually agree to discuss it.

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I think the noble lady for questions

and I'm glad she had a possible --

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positive experience at the hospital

this morning. Bed occupancy is this

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moment in time but a good job was

done to get it now below 80% -- 85%

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in the run-up to Christmas. Part of

dealing with that is actually the

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social care Saitama as we know. The

extra funding is having some impact

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on these delayed transfers of care

and bring up the number of beds. She

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is right of course that money is

important, to Tovey as we have the

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demands of the growing and ageing

population. We did have more money

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in November in the budget for the

short term. In the long-term, there

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is in and formed an lively

discussion going on across Knost

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just a liberal -- the Liberal

Democrats... I would be delighted to

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meet with her to discuss her plans

and what I can say is that there

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needs to be a sustainable long-term

increase in NHS funding and we need

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to find the right way to do that.

Does the Government recognise the

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concerns of the Royal College of the

emergency medicine at the revised

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map collecting data by NHS England

does not allow meaningful

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comparisons? Their concern is that

this may be giving an overoptimistic

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impression of throughput and does

not reflect the huge pressures on

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level one units and I wonder whether

the Minister would undertake to meet

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with the resident of the Royal

College of emergency medicine with

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me to discuss some of their

concerns.

It is an afternoon of

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agreeing to meetings. I would be

delighted to although I am not

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knowledgeable enough about the

particular issues you mentioned. Of

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course, they all have the obligation

to reach the four hour waiting time

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standard everyone to make sure that

whatever the situation, whatever the

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venue, that we can do that.

Could

the noble lord the Minister

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explained how five years after

France's inquiry, the lack of

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investment in health care in

England, as outlined in the report

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published today, left to chance,

shows that even if we had more beds,

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we would not be able to staff them?

In comparison, Wales has invested

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heavily in new nurses, and continued

professional development, and is

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doubling the amount of district

nurses it intends to train this

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year. While in England, we currently

have 4400 qualified district nurses

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went in 2010, we had 7500. How can

we resolve this quickly and ensure

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that we have more district nurses in

training by this up Amber? -- by

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this September.

This is an important

point about nursing numbers and the

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particular accusation was about the

follow-up to the Francis Report. Of

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course, a lot of that was about

staff on awards and their the

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picture shows and delays figures

from October, when compared to May

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of 2010 -- October 20 17th -- 2017.

Some other areas of nursing have

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been affected, we talked about

mental health and district nursing.

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What I would say is that the

increase in nurses training places I

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do mean that there are more nurses

going into mental health and

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community nursing as well.

The

increase in population over the last

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30 years, the number of beds in the

National Health Service is half what

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it was 30 years ago. In Germany,

they have eight beds per thousand.

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In France, it is six, and in the UK,

it is two and a half. Is it not time

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we revisited the whole question of

the number of beds available at our

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national concerns?

The noble lord

raises an interesting issue and is

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he quite rightly pointed out that

number has been dropping over a long

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time and indeed it has actually

plateaued in recent years but it has

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been following. It is a difficult

situation. We all agree that more

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care should be delivered in the

community but we also understand at

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certain times of year you do need

beds in hospitals. I think I would

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point to two things. Firstly,

freeing up, making sure that that

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capacity is more efficient so that

people can stay safely for less time

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and can spend more time being

treated in their homes, often where

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they want to be and that is why

funding for social care is

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important. The other thing I would

point out is that there was a

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reconfiguration test that has been

introduced by NHS England which is

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about stopping reductions in bed

numbers, which the noble lord has

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said has happened over successive

governments, where it cannot be

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proven that any reduction is for the

benefit of patients overall in terms

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of their overall care.

My lords, I

declare an interest as president of

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this Association. Is the Minister

aware that ID national spinal

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centre, one ward was absolutely

necessary, has been taken away from

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the spinal unit and used for general

patients? And all over the country,

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in the spinal units, there are

waiting lists, and these are very

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seriously ill patients who need

specialised treatment. Would the

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Minister look into the situation?

I

was not aware of that but I shall

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certainly investigate.

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