Concern over A&E pressures, but no new money for the NHS – Javid

There is “no quick cure” to the problems in A&E, Sajid Javid has said. But the Health Secretary has insisted that there would be no more money for the health service in England.

Mr Javid said that he was “horrified” to see a video emerge and circulate widely on social media of a nurse in an A&E telling patients they may be waiting up to 13 hours to see a doctor. However, he told delegates at the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Liverpool that “the answer to all the challenges that we face in healthcare cannot always be more money”.

And the strain in emergency departments was “linked to the pandemic”, he added. Meanwhile, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said that emergency care was facing winter pressures in the middle of summer.

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The NHS boss said that issues facing social care are not likely to be resolved before winter, which is traditionally very busy in A&E departments.

She also raised concerns about a reduction in the number of hospital beds, saying that “we have passed the point at which that efficiency actually becomes inefficient”.

Ms Pritchard also said that “budgets can only ever stretch so far” when addressing concerns about capital funding in the health service which covers upgrading buildings and IT systems.

On emergency care pressures, Mr Javid told delegates: “People stayed away, understandably at the height of the pandemic and many of those people are rightly now coming forward in record numbers and that presents itself in A&E as well as primary care in other places.

“But also the pandemic had an impact on social care, and that’s had an impact on the capacity in the social care system, which means that many hospitals are struggling