Extra capacity will help the NHS in England tackle emergency care delays, the prime minister says.
Image source, PA MediaThousands of extra hospital beds and hundreds of ambulances will be rolled out in England this year in a bid to tackle the long emergency care delays.
The 5,000 new beds will increase capacity by 5%, while there will be a 10% boost in the ambulance fleet with 800 new vehicles on the road.
Details of the £1bn investment will be set out later in a joint government and NHS England two-year blueprint.
But Labour said the plans were not enough to tackle the problems.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting accused ministers of 13 years of mismanagement and said the plan was effectively “watering down” key standards and would still leave patients waiting longer than is safe.
The government believes the measures, which will be introduced from April, will help the NHS to start getting closer to its waiting time targets.
It has set goals that by March 2024:
- 76% of A&E patients will be dealt with in four hours. Currently fewer than 70% are. The official target is 95%
- An average response time of 30 minutes for emergency calls such as heart attacks and strokes. In December patients waited over 90. The official target is 18
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said cutting NHS waiting times was one of his five main priorities.
“We have an ambitious and credible plan,” he said.
But Mr Streeting said: “Expecting the Conservatives to fix the crisis is like expecting an arsonist to put out the fire they started, it is just not going to happen.”
Questions have also been raised about how the extra resources will be staffed – currently one in 10 posts in the NHS is vacant.
Alongside the investment in beds and ambulances, the plan will also see some of the measures taken over the past year expanded further.
This includes the creation of virtual wards where patients with conditions such as heart failure receive expert care in their own home via digital technologies.
Falls services which provide urgent responses to older people with the aim of avoiding a hospital admission will also be run all-year round.
There will also be a host of new pilots to test out step-down care to help discharge patients from hospital. This will include new rehabilitation and physio services for people who need support following a stay in hospital.
Every day more than half of people ready to be discharged from hospital cannot be because of a lack of support in the community.
The investment is being paid for using some of the extra £6.6bn the government announced for the NHS in the autumn statement for the next two years.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the measures were much needed. “The NHS has been under more pressure than I have ever known in my 25 years working in the service.”
Miriam Deakin of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, described the plan as a “positive first step” in the recovery journey.
But she said a funded workforce plan was needed setting out how many extra staff would be recruited to help meet the challenges.
The plan has been delayed several times over the past year, although the government says it will be published in the coming months.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, described the announcement as a “significant step”.
“As with any plan, the implementation and results are what really matter and we look forward to seeing it delivered.”