Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that seven day NHS provision will be accessible in all parts of the country.

Ben Gummer

The Government has committed that by 2020 patients with urgent and emergency care hospital needs will have access to the same high quality hospital care at the weekend as they do during the week. This means that these patients will have access to the same level of consultant review, diagnostic tests and treatments seven days a week. Hospitals will deliver this seven day provision for 25% of the population by March 2017, 50% by March 2018 and the rest of England by 2020.

The Government has also committed that by 2020 everyone will be able to access routine general practitioner appointments at evenings and weekends. NHS 111 will give patients easy, 24/7 access to integrated urgent care services, offering clinical assessment, advice and treatment. A range of professionals will be directly available to speak to callers who need it.