Rishi Sunak says his Government is planning for winter in the NHS earlier than any previous administration after investments including £9.8 million for the Queen's Medical Centre were announced. During a visit to Nottinghamshire, the Prime Minister said people should have "confidence" about the health service's resilience when it reaches the colder months, despite the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust declaring two critical incidents last December.
Speaking about the need for the investment, the Prime Minister told local reporters in Nottinghamshire: "We're planning for winter earlier than any Government has planned for the NHS, that's what [the funding] announcement was about. Expanding our urgent and emergency care capacity is how we can make sure that the NHS can get through winter okay."We should give people confidence that we're thinking ahead to make sure that the NHS is there for them when they need it.
The health service remains under strain, with more than 7 million people waiting for treatment and recent figures showing that hospitals across the East Midlands were falling below key NHS targets. Rishi Sunak has made cutting NHS waiting lists one of his 'five pledges' ahead of the next general election, but he said during his Nottinghamshire visit that his efforts on this were being "hampered" by strikes.
But Mr Sunak also said another initiative that could ease the strain on the NHS was Community Diagnostic Centres, where patients could recieve a rapid diagnosis for conditions such as cancer. Work is due to get underway this summer on Nottinghamshire's first centre, based in Mansfield, whilst another one was recently announced for Nottingham.