Department of Health written question – answered at on 24 July 2017.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the capacity of NHS Trusts to provide safe and high quality care throughout the winter in 2017.
The National Health Service is committed to providing high quality care year round, with specific measures put in place each winter to manage the extra pressures of the season. Joint National Urgent and Emergency Care Director for NHS England and NHS Improvement wrote to local accident and emergency delivery boards on 14 July 2017 to set out national operational priorities for winter 2017/18.
Local systems, amongst other priorities, are focused specifically for 2017/18 on reducing both NHS and local authority delayed transfers of care to free up 2,000-3,000 beds nationally which will enable hospitals to operate with lower occupancy during a period of typically higher emergency admissions. To support this, the Government has allocated local authorities £2 billion over the next three years, including £1 billion for 2017/18, to implement best practice in discharging patients safely and quickly. In addition, as announced in the Spring Budget, £100 million of funding to support trusts to deliver of primary care streaming in accident and emergency departments by October 2017, as a component of improving performance against the 95%, four hour accident and emergency standard.
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