The Health Secretary has pledged urgent action to end “corridor care” for children in NHS hospitals.
Yvette Cooper told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that she has asked the chief executive of NHS England to “have urgent new standards drawn up for how children should be treated in A&E, including an urgent plan to eliminate corridor care for children as a priority”.
She added: “We’ve got a plan for the whole of the the Parliament to end corridor care more broadly, but then also to prioritise that and to do so urgently for children.”
Ms Cooper said the Government had started collecting figures on corridor care this summer, but would now start gathering data on when children specifically were treated in corridors.
Yvette Cooper being quizzed by Laura Kuenssberg (Jeff Overs/BBC)
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She told the programme: “No child should be treated in a corridor.”
She added: “I think we need urgent action to address corridor care and support for children.”
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted – so-called “corridor care” – stood at 50,582 in September, up from 44,951 in August.
The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose, standing at 129,199 in September, up from 118,550 in August.
An average of 3,310 patients in England received corridor care each day in September, with 2,549 in A&E departments and 761 in other hospital areas, NHS figures show.
This is up from an average of 2,865 per day in August, made up of 2,297 in emergency departments and 568 in other areas.
Ms Cooper also said child health needs to be “a much greater priority for the NHS”, adding: “It’s one of the things I’ve said since I started.
“Maternity and child care and child health, I think, has been treated as a bit of a sidecar for the National Health Service. I think it has to be a priority.”
Asked whether that would mean taking money from other parts of the NHS budget to fund interventions on child health, she said: “Obviously, look, priorities, you know, investment follows.”
Before appearing on the programme, the Health Secretary had warned that the NHS faces a more challenging winter than normal, as she announced a £140 million boost for urgent care in England.
She said: “Winter will be more challenging for our NHS this year, after such a heavy summer.
“That’s why we have been preparing early and investing in extra urgent care capacity to help get patients the care they need.”
The money will be spent on 14 schemes across the country, including new urgent care centres, ambulance fleets and upgrades to emergency departments.