Vice-Chair, with permission, I would like to make a statement regarding our support for emergency and emergency medical care.

I know this is of great interest to you, Honorary Members, and I wanted to report to the House of Representatives as soon as possible on the work we have been doing this summer.

Bed occupancy remains broadly at winter-type levels, compared to July’s still high Covid cases, with 1 in 25 positive and now 1 in 60.

This is without the drop in occupancy that we typically see after the winter is over, and ambulance wait times continue to reflect the pressures of last winter, but I’m pleased.Category 2 times under 18 minutes. .

Vice-President, I would like to update the House of Commons on the package of measures we are implementing across the country to improve the experience for both our patients and our colleagues.

First, Vice-President, we have increased the resources available to those on the front lines.

This year, we committed an additional £150m in funding to help the Trust deal with ambulance pressure. In addition to this, St John Ambulance and he agreed a £30 million deal. Minimum of 5,000 hours per month.

We are also increasing the number of people working on the front lines.

The number of 999 call handlers nationwide has increased to about 2,300, about 350 more than last September. And he plans to increase this number to another 2,500 by December, backed by a massive nationwide recruitment campaign.

By the end of the year, 111 call handler numbers will also increase to 4,800.

In addition to this, there are plans to train and deploy more paramedics and Health Education England is obliged to train 3,000 paramedic graduates each year across the country. That’s double her number of graduates accepted in 2016.

Second, Vice-President, our focus is on the issue of delayed discharge. This is the cause of so many problems we see in emergency and critical care, and I think it’s recognized across the House.

This is where the patient is medically fit to leave the hospital but remains in the hospital and occupies a bed that could otherwise be used for inpatients.

Delayed discharge results in longer A&E waiting times, longer ambulance handovers, and longer patient stays in hospital beds, especially frail older people at risk of exacerbation.

According to the latest figures at the end of July, the number of these cases is slightly above the 13,000, which is similar to the winter season.

We are working closely with the trusts with the most delayed discharges and implementing intensive support on the ground.

More broadly, our National Discharge Task Force is looking across medical and social care to see where we can implement best practices and improve patient flow within hospitals. As part of this, we also selected a Discharge Frontrunner to test radical solutions to improve hospital discharge. We are looking at which of these proposals can be rolled out across the wider system and ramped up quickly. .

Of course, this is not just an NHS issue.

We have an integrated system for health and care, and we must look to that system and all the opportunities we can make a difference.

For example, patients may experience delays as they wait for social care to become available. Again, we took additional measures during the summer.

We have launched an international recruitment task force to augment our care workforce and address capacity issues.

In addition to this, we will focus on the Better Care Fund, which will allow the Integrative Medicine Board and local governments to pool budgets to reduce delays in hospital discharge.

Additionally, we are exploring how we can leverage the significant advances in technology seen during the pandemic to unlock the value of the data we hold in health and care through federated data platforms.

Finally, Vice-President, we know from experience that winter can be a time of intense pressure for emergencies and urgent care.

The NHS plans to add 7,000 beds’ worth of beds this winter, combining additional physical beds with virtual wards that have played a vital role in the fight against Covid-19.
Another powerful weapon this winter is the vaccination program.

Last winter, we saw firsthand the impact of booster programs on hospital admissions.

This year’s program gives us new opportunities to protect the most vulnerable and reduce demand on the NHS.

The Covid-19 and flu fall booster program is now on-going, as nursing home residents, staff and stay-at-homes for the wider population, including those over the age of 50 who had their first jabs this week. Cohorts were the first to receive the Covid-19 jab. approved.

And indeed, this weekend, the MHRA approved another double strain vaccine from Pfizer. As part of our Covid-19 vaccination program, we are pleased to confirm that it will also be rolled out alongside the Moderna double strain vaccine. , and in line with JCVI’s independent expert advice.

Anyone who is eligible for protection as soon as they are invited by the NHS, whether it is Covid-19 or the flu, is doing it not just to protect themselves and those around them, but to end the pressure on the NHS this winter. We recommend that you relax.

Today I also submitted to the House of Commons a written Ministerial Statement on the work we have been doing this summer. I simply wanted to draw the attention of the House to the particular features of that written ministerial statement that caught its attention. In the past. In November 2021, the government announced that he would be funding £50m for research into motor neuron disease over five years. Following work done over the summer between the Department of Health and Human Services and BEIS through the National Institutes of Health and his UKRI to help researchers access funding in a rational and coordinated manner , this fund is now ring-fenced. The Department of Health and Human Services and BEIS welcome the opportunity for MND’s research community to network and link together through a virtual laboratory.

I commend the House of Commons for this statement.