Labour pledges to end ‘corridor care’ and long waits with almost £450m NHS investment in England
Nearly £450m is being invested in the NHS in England to cut hospital waiting times and tackle persistently failing trusts, the health secretary has announced.
Wes Streeting says his NHS reforms aim to deliver around 40 new centres to fast-track treatment for patients, up to 15 mental health crisis assessment units and almost 500 new ambulances.
It is part of an attempt to shift patients away from A&E and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
“No patient should ever be left waiting for hours in hospital corridors or for an ambulance which ought to arrive in minutes,” said Mr Streeting.
“The package of investment and reforms we are announcing today will help the NHS treat more patients in the community, so they don’t end up stuck on trolleys in A&E,” he added.
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Inside access: Mental health crisis in hospitals
In an example of the challenge facing the health secretary, Sky News on Wednesday revealed the scale of England’s mental health crisis, exacerbated by a shortage of specialist beds and an overwhelmed social care network.
The new Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for England says more needs to be done to drive down long waits, cut delayed discharges and improve care for patients.
The document requires Trusts to reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours and make progress on “eliminating corridor care”. It is estimated “over 800,000 people a month will receive more timely care”.
A&E league tables published
A&E “league tables” will be published to drive up performance, including driving down delayed discharges from hospital. This can often impact elderly people when they are fit to leave but have additional care needs which require the involvement of social care teams.
The plan also sets out aims to cut ambulance waiting times for category 2 patients – like those suffering stroke, heart attack, sepsis or major trauma – from 35 to 30 minutes. A previous target of 18 minutes has been repeatedly missed.
Trusts have also been told to tackle lengthy ambulance handover delays by meeting a maximum 45-minute target for patients to enter A&E.
The aim is to avoid a repeat of a crisis last winter when patients were waiting hours for beds and regularly being treated in corridors – so-called corridor care.
Among the other plans revealed by NHS England are: virtual wards, where patients are monitored by hospital staff from their home, and a greater role for paramedics and urgent community response teams to treat people in the community to avoid hospital admission.
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Some reforms ‘lack ambition’
Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Adrian Boyle accepted the plan had “some good and some bad” points but also that NHS England had acknowledged “the shameful situation being experienced by patients and clinicians across the country’s emergency departments”.
In a statement, Mr Boyle said: “Some parts lack ambition – for example accepting that 10% of people will face A&E waits of more than 12 hours, when no patient should.
“Also maintaining the four-hour standard at 78% when the stated aim is that 95% of patients should move through the emergency department within this time – something which hasn’t happened for a decade.”
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Association of Ambulance Chief Executives managing director Anna Parry said: “Handover delays have the greatest detrimental impact on ambulance resources and create unnecessary delays and additional harm for thousands of patients each year.
“The elimination of corridor care and the focus on reducing 12-hour waits at emergency departments is also welcomed.”
The Liberal Democrats broadly welcomed the plans but called on ministers to follow through on their promises.
“Patients have heard these kinds of promises before only to be led up the garden path,” said Lib Dem health spokesperson Helen Morgan MP.
“The misery in our A&Es will only be prolonged if they continue to move at a snail’s pace on social care,” she added.
David Beckham is set to receive a knighthood in the King’s upcoming Birthday Honours list, Sky News understands.
The former England football captain was awarded an OBE in 2003, on the recommendation of then prime minister Tony Blair, but is now set to receive further recognition.
Beckham, who turned 50 in May, would take on the title of Sir and his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, would become Lady Beckham, as first reported by The Sun.
It has been a long-held ambition of Beckham’s, and rumours abounded last year he may finally get the honour after he was announced as ambassador to the King’s Foundation.
Speculation then hit fever pitch in December last year when he attended a state banquet for the first time, alongside his wife.
Beckham, who would go by Sir David, met the King last week at the Chelsea Flower show.
The monarch was heard asking the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain star, “You got it, didn’t you?”
Beckham responded: “It was incredible, thank you. It was very kind.”
The Queen was then heard telling him: “I’m glad you got the roses.”
Beckham and Prince William at a football match in 2012. Pic: PA
Services to football and beyond
The footballing legend played 115 times for England before his retirement in 2013. He is the only Englishman to score at three different World Cups.
His career included the treble-winning campaign of 1998-99 – when Manchester United won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.
He famously equalised against Greece in the dying seconds of a World Cup qualifier in 2001. Pic: PA
He also played a key role in securing the London 2012 Olympics and has been an ambassador for UNICEF since 2005.
In 2015, the organisation launched the David Beckham UNICEF Fund.
Victoria Beckham received an OBE for services to the fashion industry in 2017.
Beckham played a key role in securing the London 2012 Olympics. Pic: PA
Beckham’s ‘hacked’ honours emails
Beckham’s hopes of being rewarded for his Olympic efforts in the 2014 honours list were scuppered by an issue with his taxes. HM Revenue and Customs placed a red flag on his nomination due to his involvement in an alleged tax avoidance scheme, according to previous reports.
Beckham received an OBE in 2003. Pic: PA
In 2017, details of the footballer’s leaked emails were printed in the national press, in which he appeared to criticise the honours system and committee.
A spokesperson for the footballer said at the time his emails were “hacked” and “doctored”.
Anything other than a win for Labour would have been a humiliation in this contest.
It wasn’t any old local by-election – this was a contest where Labour knew it could act as a mini barometer of Sir Keir Starmer’s recent U-turn on winter fuel payments and become a test of how popular the politics of Nigel Farage are in Scotland.
Labour are power hungry and have, for a long time, set their sights on forming the next Scottish government.
The prime minister will this morning be breathing a sigh of relief after clinching this shock victory over the SNP and Reform UK.
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New MSP’s message to Farage and ‘his mob’
This contest on the outskirts of Glasgow came at a time where Labour had been firefighting and grappling with polling suggesting they had blown their chances of ousting the SNP from power in Edinburgh after almost 20 years.
The SNP had a spring in their step during this campaign after a chaotic couple of years.
First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney had apparently stemmed the bleeding after the infamous police fraud investigation, endless fallout over gender identity reforms, and last year’s general election where they were almost wiped out.
This result leaves them no further forward than 12 months ago with questions over the party’s strategy.
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SNP and Reform UK election billboard posters in Larkhall. Pic: PA
Reform UK is very much in the Scottish picture now, finishing a few hundred votes behind the nationalists.
This is a party led by a man who barely registered any support north of the border for many years. A remarkable transformation.
The surge in support has spooked many because they know fine well Nigel Farage is only just getting started.
One poll had Reform UK forming the next official opposition at Holyrood. After tonight, that might be a tall order but Mr Farage is shaking things up at the expense of the Conservatives.
The unpredictable nature of this contest may give us a taste of what is to come.
A single ticket-holder could win the biggest lottery prize the UK has ever seen if they match the right numbers in tonight’s EuroMillions draw.
The jackpot has rolled over to an estimated £208m, after Tuesday’s £199m draw – which also would have been a record-breaking amount – had no winners.
The winner would instantly become richer than Adele and Harry Styles, while also bagging the top spot on the National Lottery’s biggest wins list.
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Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at Allwyn, said: “We are now on the verge of potentially creating the biggest National Lottery winner this country has ever seen.”
The previous largest prize pot was won by an anonymous UK ticket-holder, who took home £195m on 19 July 2022.
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Just two months earlier, Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, won £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket. At the time, Joe was a communications sales engineer, and Jess ran a hairdressing salon with her sister.
Mr Thwaite said he woke up at 5am as usual, and checked his phone to see an email saying, “Good news, you have won a prize”.
But he did not immediately wake his wife, choosing to let her sleep in.
“I saw how much and I didn’t know what to do,” Mr Thwaite said.
“I couldn’t go back to sleep, I didn’t want to wake Jess up, so I just laid there for what seemed like forever. I spent some time searching for property with no budget limit, which was a novelty!”
When his wife woke up, she assumed the National Lottery app was wrong.
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Winner ‘thought it was a scam’
In February last year, Richard and Debbie Nuttall were revealed as the UK winners of a £61m EuroMillions jackpot – who at first thought they had only won £2.60.
The couple from Lancashire split the £123m prize with a winner in Spain.
This year’s biggest prize, of £83m went to a UK winner in January.
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