The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay, updated the House of Commons on what the government is doing to help the NHS deal with immediate winter pressures.
Part of the Government's further plans involve integration, additional funding into discharge, increased step-down capacity, the equivalent of 7000 additional hospital beds and the vaccination programme at scale.
Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, Steve Brine MP, was present in the Commons chamber listening carefully to the statement. The MP welcomed the funding injection and the attention drawn to prevention, also drawing attention to patient flow in acute hospitals.
The Secretary of State welcomed the Chair's input saying; "He raises an extremely important issue in terms of getting flow into the system, not least because it is delays in ambulance handovers that leads to the highest risk in what is a whole of system issue, which is that of the patient that isn't seen where treatment is delayed and that is why flow through discharge is so important because whilst that'll often concerns the backdoor of the hospital it is actually the pressure at the front door that is most acute."
Mr Brine also asked about the oversight the Department will have over NHS England on how the £250million additional funding is spent.
The MP closed his remarks by asking; "Can I just make a plea that domiciliary care is not overlooked here, because the lack of care in people's homes is every bit the enemy of patient flow, as a lack of the care home places which is identified today."
Steve Barclay responded; "It is not simply about releasing patients from hospital who are fit to discharge, it is also about the wrap around services that are provided for those patients, so that they then don't get stuck in residential care for longer and they're still able to go home and get those domiciliary care packages. And that is something NHS England is particularly focused on so they have the wrap around services, alongside that discharge."
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