Emergency funds to ease winter pressure on NHS and free up hospital beds to be released

It was announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the Conservative party conference that an emergency £240m will be provided to ease pressure on the NHS over the winter months, to enable more elderly and vulnerable people to be cared for at home, and free up NHS hospital beds.

However, critics have said the funding was “nowhere near enough”.

According to NHS England figures, in the early months of this year, one in five patients faced long delays waiting to be allocated a bed, and the number of seriously ill patients facing delays reached record highs with 1,000 waiting for longer than 12 hours.

The money will be channelled through local authorities and Mr Hancock has suggested that it could be enough to buy 86,500 ‘reenablement’ packages or 71,500 domestic care packages. He added “We will use this money to get people who don’t need to be in hospital, but do need care, back home, back into their communities, so we can free up those vital hospital beds.

“And help people who really need it get the hospital care they need.”

However, Barbara Keeley, shadow social care minister, said “tinkering at the edges” would not be a solution to “a severe crisis in social care caused by eight years of Tory austerity.”

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence compensation claims, and have obtained substantial compensation for our clients. Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Freephone : 0800 304 738