NHS Trusts Given £250m For 'Tough' Winter

NHS trusts in England are being given £250m in Government funding to avoid a crisis in services this winter.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt unveiled a string of plans to ease the burden on hospitals, as he admitted the end of the year would be "tough".

The short-term funding boost, part of a £500m cash injection over two years, came as he called for better general care for the elderly.

Mr Hunt told Sky News he wanted to bring back named GPs for patients so that they receive a more personal service.

It is also hoped that reintroducing the practice will ease some of the pressure on hospitals, who are struggling to cope with rising demand.

Visits to A&E departments in England have risen by a third in the past decade - and one million a year since 2012, according to Government figures.

NHS 111 is being given £15m to fund extra staff

The over-65s only make up 17% of the total population but they occupy 68% of emergency beds in the NHS.

Mr Hunt claimed changes introduced by Labour in 2004, which abolished the idea of having a specific GP for every patient, were partly to blame for the surge.

"Evidence from the United States and other countries is that when you have a named GP you are less likely to need hospital care and we need to bring that back, particularly for our vulnerable, older people. We want to do that from next year," he said.

He admitted there would be a need for many more GPs to achieve the change, putting the initial figure at 2,000.

"We are looking actually at whether we need even more than that," he added.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, insisted doctors were not neglecting their older patients.

She said Mr Hunt's comments would be "disheartening and morale-sapping" for hard-working GPs who are struggling with "ever-dwindling resources".

The extra health funding for this year will go on a raft of measures designed to avoid hospitals buckling under the strain.

They include: extra consultants on weekends; better community services; improvements to urgent care, district nurses and care at home; greater links with social care and better cooperation between the ambulance service and hospitals.

Some £15m will go to the beleaguered NHS 111 phone line, with more clinicians and standard call-handlers on duty in an attempt to avoid unnecessary A&E visits.

There will also be a national flu campaign, with all children aged two and three vaccinated for the first time to reduce its spread.

Hospitals eligible for a slice of the £250m in funding will have to vaccinate at least 75% of their staff to qualify for the cash.

The announcement came hours after new figures revealed only five consultants currently work overnight in A&E departments across England.

Data obtained by the Daily Mail also found 90% of trusts only have one consultant working in emergency care on weekends.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, speaking in the Commons, claimed Mr Hunt had presided over A&E's worst 12 months for a decade.

He blamed social care cuts for a 66% rise in "very frail and frightened" elderly people being sped to hospitals in ambulances in the last two years.

"Patients and staff cannot go through another year in A&E like the one we have just had. You should cut the spin, get a grip or go."

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA's GP committee, said ministers needed to "roll back the bureaucratic nightmare" to ease the burden on doctors.

And Dr Paul Flynn, chair of the BMA's consultant committee warned that a "significant, rather than a one-off, additional investment" in staff and resources was needed.

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