Constituents have contacted me about the pressures that Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments are facing, which are made worse by specific winter seasonal challenges. The experience of patients this winter is unacceptable with ambulance delays, long waits in A&E and the ‘normalisation’ of corridor care. This is not the level of care that NHS staff want for their patients, nor the level of care that the Government accepts for patients. Annual winter pressures should not always result in a crisis in the health service and the Government is already planning for next winter. In the spring it will shortly set out the lessons learned and improvements to be made for next year.

The Government’s 2025 Road to Recovery Mandate for NHS England makes urgent and emergency care a priority, meaning that NHS England will have to work to reduce long wait times in A&E, make progress towards reducing hospital admissions by building up neighbourhood health services and work closely with local partners and social care services to improve discharge in a timely manner. It will take time to fix but the Government is committed to delivering a health service and social care system that provides patients with care where and when they need it.

Measures are already being successfully put in place to support the NHS, including recruiting hundreds of GPs and a commitment to investing an extra £26 billion in our health and social care services. This is alongside deploying specialist teams to tackle waiting lists and increase productivity, and commissioning work on developing a national consensus on a long-term solution for social care.

Best wishes

Rt Hon Hilary Benn
MP for Leeds South
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland