The Government is to give ‘more than £145 m’ to NHS Trusts countrywide ahead of winter to improve emergency care.
The funding, from the Department of Health and Social Care’s existing budget, will be spent on 81 new schemes to:
- upgrade wards.
- redevelop A&E departments.
- improve same-day emergency care.
- improve systems for managing the number of beds in use.
- provide an extra 900 beds.
The University Hospital of North Midlands will receive £8.82 m towards two additional wards on the Royal Stoke site, while East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust will receive £6.42 m to increase emergency care capacity at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate. At Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the money will assist emergency day care, managing the flow of patients through the hospital, and improving the way ambulances hand over patients.
Earlier this year the Government provided £36.3 m to ambulance Trusts to prepare for winter. Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock (pictured), said: “Staff put in a huge amount of work preparing our health service for the challenge of treating more patients over winter, and it’s right that we make sure they have the resources they need so people receive the care they deserve.”
