A and E and Ambulance Services Debate
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Martin Horwood
Main Page: Martin Horwood (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)Department Debates - View all Martin Horwood's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
A and E and Ambulance Services
Martin Horwood Excerpts(9 years, 4 months ago)
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Mr Hunt
My hon. Friend is right about that. Just as this Government have taken a very robust attitude towards poor care in hospitals—we now have 6,000 more nurses on our hospital wards following the Francis report—we need to take an equally robust attitude towards what is provided in people’s homes, to make sure that we have proper care. It is a false economy to cut back on out-of-hospital care to pay for hospital care, as we need both.
Mr Speaker
An absolutely delicious intellectual beauty parade. Mr Martin Horwood.
Martin Horwood
Mr Speaker, your festive generosity equals only that of Father Christmas.
Gloucestershire hospitals have been under severe pressure in recent days, but is not one complicating factor that, in Gloucestershire and elsewhere, every unplanned GP admission to hospital goes via the emergency department? Although such cases may be relatively urgent, they are not necessarily what most of us would understand as an accident or an emergency.
Mr Hunt
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to make that point. There has been a lot of support for the NHS today from Liberal Democrats. If they are ever considering which is the best partner to back the NHS at any hypothetical time in the future, they should know that there is only one party that can provide the strong economy to fund a strong NHS.