Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs
PMQs - Snap verdict
PMQs - Verdict
PMQs - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat
Lunchtime summary
Afternoon summary
6.01pm GMT
Like probably every part of the public service we got less than we asked for in that process. So I think it would be stretching it to say the NHS has got more than it asked for ... There are clearly very substantial pressures, and I don’t think it helps anybody to try and pretend that there aren’t.
This reveals, I’m afraid, a fundamental misunderstanding about how you fund the NHS. Corporation taxes are being cut so that we can boost jobs and strengthen the economy so that we can fund the NHS. The reason we’ve been able to protect and increase funding in the NHS in the last six years, when the party opposite was not willing to do so, is precisely because we’ve created two million jobs and we’ve given this country the fastest growing economy in the G7 - and that is even more important post-Brexit.
So to risk that growth, which is what their proposal will do, would not just risk funding for the NHS - it’d be dangerous for the economy and mortally dangerous for the NHS.
5.24pm GMT
Q: What effect would a hard Brexit have on the NHS?
Wormald says Brexit would raise issues for the DoH. But the issue does not dominate the department’s thinking.
5.17pm GMT
Mackey says this year the NHS will deliver efficiency savings at just over 3%. He says 4% has been set as a target. He says he would like these targets to be lower. He says people did not expect the NHS to be able to achieve the efficiencies it has managed this year. But it will not be possible to go on like this forever, he says.
5.07pm GMT
The Times story this morning said Downing Street aides complain that Simon Stevens is not “enthusiastic”. (See 9.21am.) The Times’s Chris Smyth says Stevens has been using his evidence this afternoon to hit back quite pointedly.
No 10 says Stevens not "enthusiastic". He says he is campaigning against govt social care cuts "enthusiastically I might add". Gratuitous
4.56pm GMT
And this is from Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary.
Just hours after the prime minister stands up at PMQs commending her government’s funding of the NHS, the NHS England chief tells MPs that it would be stretching it to say that the NHS has got more money than it asked for.
Theresa May is in total denial about the crisis the Tories have created in the NHS.
4.50pm GMT
Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem health spokesman, has put out this response to Simon Stevens’ comments about the NHS not getting all the money it wanted. He said:
These worrying comments reinforce the case for a fresh approach to NHS funding.
The government must stop trying to shoot the messenger and admit that current levels of underfunding are not sustainable.
4.41pm GMT
Stevens is now talking about STP’s (sustainability and transformation plans).
Meg: Most people don't know what a STP is! pic.twitter.com/UWm9zNzIjJ
SS: In South London there are posters advertising the changes.
Meg: Good for South London!? pic.twitter.com/JdA9By9WqA
4.40pm GMT
Here is a video clip of Simon Stevens saying the NHS got less than it asked for.
NHS finances: PAC Chair @Meg_HillierMP opens today's questioning of NHS CEO Simon Stevens: Did the NHS get more £ than it asked for? pic.twitter.com/HwWjnms8QA
4.35pm GMT
Simon Stevens has been going for almost an hour and a half now, and he still has not been asked about today’s Times splash. (See 9.21am.)
But the Times story may explain Stevens’ tone. This is from Alastair McLellan, editor of the Health Service Journal.
Stevens is clearly telling No10 spinners - come after me and I'll hit back twice as hard. Interesting to see their reaction
4.24pm GMT
NHS boss Stevens says he has been "running a little campaign" against cuts to social care. Bloomin' 'eck. Are officials allowed to do that?
4.22pm GMT
Stevens says there are four beds in care home for every acute hospital bed.
So what happens in care homes affects hospital.
4.21pm GMT
ITV’s political editor Robert Peston reckons there is something remarkable about the NHS chief executive openly contradicting the DoH permanent secretary.
Surely not sustainable for boss of NHS Stevens to be publicly criticising Dept of Health perm sec Wormald so conspicuously
Surely not sustainable for boss of NHS Stevens to be publicly criticising Dept of Health perm sec Wormald so conspicuously
4.16pm GMT
Caroline Flint, the Labour MP and a former health minister, goes next.
Q: Labour built health centres to improve what services GPs can offer. Why are these not being used?
4.14pm GMT
This is from Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh.
*Another* pop at May (ex Home Sec). Stevens: "We can't change ageing Britain...We are quite different from the criminal justice system."
After Simon Stevens' comments on health spending today I think Theresa May has found her new ambassador to Siberia
4.12pm GMT
Wormald says total health spending is around the average for the OECD.
Stevens says he does not like to disagree with Wormald. The OECD includes countries like Mexico. If we look at countries we normally compare ourselves to, we are spending less than the average. We are spending 30% less per head than Germany, he says.
Another shrewd Stevens move. Holds up Daily Mail story saying NHS lags behind other EU states on some key measures. pic.twitter.com/qZx7msKP0T
hah - Daily Mail being probably the favoured paper of May administration https://t.co/57XHvZwBYZ
4.08pm GMT
Steven says he is going to refresh his five-year NHS plan. He says the update will be produced by the end of March.
4.03pm GMT
Here is Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, commenting on Simon Stevens’s evidence.
Simon Stevens blows apart Theresa May's claims she's given the NHS the necessary funding. No 10 should listen to him not brief against him
4.01pm GMT
Stevens says life expectancy is rising five hour a day.
3.57pm GMT
Q: Why are hospitals busier now than before?
Mackey says some of it is to do with social care. Some of it is consumer led. There has also been a spike recently in people admitted with respiratory problems. Some of these are people who would not have been alive a few years ago, so some of this is increasing life expectancy, he says.
3.56pm GMT
Anne Marie Morris, a Conservative, says people who turn up to A&E get treated for free. But if they turn up to a GP, they have to pay for prescriptions. Is that encouraging people to go to A&E?
Stevens says he will write to the committee about this point.
3.50pm GMT
Meg Hillier goes back to the four-hour waiting time issue. She quotes from what Jeremy Hunt said on Monday. He talked about it applying to urgent cases.
Stevens says the government has committed to maintaining the target.
3.47pm GMT
Kwasi Kwarteng, a Conservative, goes next.
Q: What can the government do to help?
Unprompted, Stevens brings up his plan to pay for social care by scrapping pensioner perks - another annoyance for May. He's up for this
3.43pm GMT
Q: Will targets be relaxed?
Mackey says targets will not be relaxed.
3.43pm GMT
Jim Mackey, the NHS Improvement chief executive, says it is hard to manage risk when departments are crowded. The NHS is trying to address this.
It will look at whether there should be new standards, for example saying some patients need to be seen in two hours.
3.41pm GMT
Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, says Jeremy Hunt said on Monday that the four-hour A&E target was being dropped.
Wormald says Hunt did not say that. He says Hunt was making the point that we need a conversation about how and A&E is used.
3.37pm GMT
Stevens says, given what the NHS needs to do, especially to support GPs, there will have to be capital investment.
The NHS has got some of that.
3.30pm GMT
Stevens says the five-year plan envisaged expanding capital investment.
But it is being cut by about £1bn a year, he says.
3.29pm GMT
Stevens says there are “very real pressures” in the here and now.
Over the next three years there will be very real pressures.
3.26pm GMT
Here is more from Simon Stevens’ opening remarks.
In what could be an explosive HoC testimony, Simon Stevens, #NHS chief says: "It doesn't help anybody to pretend there aren't finance gaps"
Well. The NHS England boss Simon Stevens tells @CommonsPAC that extra £10bn was over 6 years. "We did not get all of what we asked for".
It is right - extra £10bn by 2020. Over and above that - spending review has set NHS budget for next 3 years. We got less than we asked for pic.twitter.com/UMbcVcJkA1
Real spending per person is going to go down, lets not pretend that this won't lead to pressures on the service - Simon Stevens pic.twitter.com/fgEPOcr2Fk
3.17pm GMT
Simon Stevens is giving evidence with Chris Wormald, permanent secretary of the Department of Health (DoH), David Williams, director general finance and group operations at the DoH and Jim Mackey, chief executive at NHS Improvement.
Wormald says the NHS got all that it asked for.
3.15pm GMT
The Simon Stevens hearing is starting now.
Q: Is the NHS getting more money than it asks for?
3.12pm GMT
And here is a chart from the NAO report showing the growing gap between NHS trusts spending and income.
3.09pm GMT
Here is a summary of the National Audit Office report, Financial sustainability of the NHS, that this committee inquiry is based on.
And this is what Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said when the report was published.
With more than two-thirds of trusts in deficit in 2015-16 and an increasing number of clinical commissioning groups unable to keep their spending within budget, we repeat our view that financial problems are endemic and this is not sustainable. It is fair to say aggressive efficiency targets have helped to swell the ranks of trusts in deficit over the last few years. The Department, NHS England and NHS Improvement have put considerable effort and funding toward stabilising the system, but have a way to go to demonstrate that they have balanced resources and achieved stability as a result of this effort. Therefore, value for money from these collective actions has not yet been demonstrated.
3.04pm GMT
The Commons public accounts committee is holding a hearing as part of its inquiry into the financial stability of the NHS this afternoon, and Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England is due to give evidence after 3pm.
Here is a briefing from the committee about the inquiry.
The financial performance of NHS bodies worsened considerably in 2015–16 and this trend is not sustainable, according to the National Audit Office.
In 2015–16, NHS commissioners, NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts reported a combined deficit of £1.85 billion, a greater than three-fold increase in the deficit position of £574 million reported in 2014–15. Provider trusts’ overall deficit grew by 185% to £2.45 billion, up from £859 million in 2014–15, against total income of £75.97 billion. In addition, two-thirds of NHS trusts (65%) and NHS foundation trusts (66%) reported deficits in 2015-16, up from 44% of NHS trusts and 51% of NHS foundation trusts in the previous financial year. The number of clinical commissioning groups reporting cumulative deficits was 32 in 2015–16, up from 19 in both 2014–15 and 2013–14.
'No we don't believe the NHS has got all the money it needs to deliver what its being asked to' - Chris Hopson tells @CommonsPAC
2.58pm GMT
Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, is currently giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee. He has said that Brexi is no longer the most significant domestic risk to economic stability.
My colleague Nick Fletcher is covering it on the business live blog.
Related: Carney tells MPs Brexit no longer biggest risk to stability; WEF warns on inequality – live
2.19pm GMT
Breaking: Supreme Court will *not* be giving advance copies of A50 appeal decision - to government, or to anyone else.
SC confirmed today.
This preferred bidder, Macquarie, not only has a dismal and terrible environmental record, it also has an appalling track record of asset stripping. So why has the government given preferred bidder status to this company?
1.43pm GMT
This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs on Twitter.
Most seem to think Jeremy Corbyn won.
Not especially hard for @jeremycorbyn to win on NHS at #PMQs but he did put ball into @theresa_may net not his own
Think #Corbyn quietly won that one. Well not so quietly. #pmqs
Suspect Tories will be relieved about those exchanges. Corbyn didn't managed to really land any of his NHS punches
Another good #PMQs showing by Corbyn - core topic where PM is on weak ground. But as 2015 showed, you can't win an election on NHS alone
Barring that steamrollering on May's debut, Corbyn has won or drawn every #PMQs against her. Doesn't look like changing today.
There is something weirdly slow about May vs Corbyn. They do #PMQs like an end-of-season match between two midtable teams.
A palpable hit on the "sharing society" from Jeremy Corbyn - patients "sharing" beds in hospitals etc. Very good and will be clipped. #PMQs
A win for Jeremy Corbyn. #PMQs This is like a third round FA Cup upset.
#PMQs review: Theresa May wants to talk about the economy, rather than the NHS. https://t.co/AzfyqFVNeH pic.twitter.com/6CUod3Bu0p
Snap verdict on #PMQs: May slips under Corbyn pressurehttps://t.co/jMmllnbDhe pic.twitter.com/ojEc7iFj55
Corbyn did well-hammering subject repeatedly, A&E, mental health, social care. May struggled bt strong finish claiming Lab cheques wd bounce
Methinks Theresa May doesn't quite get the NHS as a political issue - or Tory vulnerability over it #pmqs
Difficult #pmqs for May despite her attempts to poke fun at Corbyn's woes from yday
#PMQs strangely quiet. Labour rarely noisy but silence from Tory MPs on NHS suggests they don't have total faith that every is hunky-dory
Corbyn did expose May's lack of plausible answers on NHS in #pmqs there.
Corbyn dribbling the ball past the open goal #PMQs
Tory MPs quiet and looking concerned during this exchange on #NHS #pmqs
So - Corbyn is getting the hang of this #PMQs malarkey: Pick a subject on which PM is under pressure and keep hammering away for 6 questions
May finishes PMQs exchange strongly with a dig at Labour's economic credibility but a good performance by Corbyn on NHS/social care
No doubt Jeremy Corbyn is getting much better at #PMQs - focused questions and decent soundbites. Had PM struggling on NHS, there.
A confident performance from @jeremycorbyn but against the @theresa_may armour didn't land a glancing blow. May weak on social care.
The first #PMQs of 2017 like a re-run of 2015 election. Labour attacking on #NHS and the Tories rebuke; Labour would destroy the economy.
1.16pm GMT
PMQs - Verdict: One of the challenges of leadership is not just doing the right thing but being seen to do the right thing. Taking charge, getting on the front foot, seizing the initiative. Not just leading, but showing leadership. And that was Theresa May’s main problem today. She could respond to Jeremy Corbyn’s questions about the NHS with a measure of authority, but she did not sound like someone engaging with the scale of the problems afflicting the NHS or with much idea about what to do about them. Corbyn won comfortably.
Perhaps she thinks the whole thing is just routine winter difficulties whose seriousness has been exaggerated by a politically-motivated opposition, publicity-seeking charities and the sensationalist press (like that well-known leftist organ, the Sun). Even if May did take this view, she should have something more to say. But all the evidence points to the NHS and the care system facing a structural crisis, not just a seasonal one, and May came across as complacent.
I accept there have been a small number of incidents where unacceptable practices have taken place but what matters - we don’t want those things to happen - is how you then deal with them.
12.52pm GMT
As usual, I missed the questions from Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, because I was writing up the snap verdict. Here’s a catch-up.
Robertson asked about the crisis in Northern Ireland.
Will the prime minister tell us what the consequences will be if no agreement can be found?
We are treating this with the utmost seriousness. The Northern Ireland secretary is urging all parties to work together to find a way further, I myself have also spoken to the Taoiseach about this issue so we are putting every effort into this. If within seven days we don’t have nomination for a deputy first minister the matter would go to an election.
It stands to reason that she’ll be unable to properly consult, to fully discuss and find agreement on the complex issues in this time period. In these circumstances, will the prime minister postpone invoking article 50, or will she just plough on regardless?
It’s about ensuring, as he says, we want to ensure we do hear the views from all parts of the UK, that’s why we have established the joint ministerial committee European committee to take the view and the JMC plenary.
First of all we want to try to ensure that within this period of seven days we can find a resolution to the political situation in Northern Ireland, but I’m also clear that in the discussions we have it will be possible - it is still the case that ministers are in place and executives are in place - that we are still able to take the views of the people of Northern Ireland.
12.42pm GMT
My colleague Anushka Asthana, the Guardian’s joint political editor, will shortly be discussing PMQs in a video on the Guardian’s Facebook page where she will also be taking questions from readers/viewers.
12.40pm GMT
Nicky Morgan, a Conservative, asks about a constituent battling cancer. Her tax credits have been stopped, she says. Can May get the Treasury to look at this?
May says she is sorry to hear about this. She says a Treasury minister will look at this case.
12.38pm GMT
The DUP’s Gavin Robinson asks May that nothing can be or should be gained from threatening the peace process in Northern Ireland.
May says the progress made in Northern Ireland has been hard won. That is why it is important to get a return to the power-sharing institutions.
12.36pm GMT
Labour’s John Woodcock says 24-hour access to A&E and maternity services risk being lost in Copeland (where there is a byelection). Expectant mums face a 40-mile journey on roads that could be blocked.
May says she understands the problems in Cumbria. A lasting plan is being developed for high quality services. She says final decisions about the unit at West Cumbria hospital have not yet been taken.
12.34pm GMT
The SNP’s Alan Brown asks why Steve Webb has been given a knighthood given his role in the raising of the state pension age for women, which has led to waspi (women against state pension inequality) losing out.
May sidesteps the knighthood point, but defends the government’s record on pensions.
12.32pm GMT
James Davies, a Conservative, asks if May will support a plan to invest in rail infrastructure in north Wales.
May says this plan sets out an ambitious programme. The department for transport will work on this.
12.31pm GMT
The SNP’s Joanna Cherry says many banks are closing local branches, with adverse effects on the elderly. Convenience stores are taking up the strain. Will May meet her to discuss how banking can service the community?
May says there are many ways people can access bank services. But she will look at this, she says.
12.30pm GMT
Edward Argar, a Conservative, says nothing can be more distressing for a parent than having a child murdered. He says two families are setting up a campaign for better treatment of victims’ families after an acquital.
May pays tribute to the campaigners. She says she is committed to ensure the voices of victims are heard. Amber Rudd, the home secretary, is taking this forward, she says.
12.28pm GMT
The Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb says there genuine concerns about the NHS. That is why MPs from all parties are calling for an NHS and care convention. Would May meet with them to hear their case?
May says she would be happy to have that meeting.
12.27pm GMT
Richard Fuller, a Conservative, asks about the Bedford community business school. Will May ensure her industrial strategy takes account of small business.
May says it will be looking to the economy of the future. Crucial to that is the growth generated by entrepreneurs.
12.24pm GMT
PMQs - Snap verdict: Corbyn had the best of that exchange, May finished strongly, but her jibe about Labour making multiple pledges based on corporation tax savings could not really dispel the impression that she had little or nothing to say about a crisis that goes well beyond routine opposition shroud-waving. The NHS is traditionally a good subject for Labour but Corbyn was passionate and focused, he responded particularly well to May’s point about mental health and he sounded credible and convincing. May had her moments - her British Red Cross put-down will probably resonate with many - but generally she gave the impression of being a politician on the defensive, not someone taking charge.
12.16pm GMT
Corbyn says no one wants mental health patients to go to A&E. But people are desperate. And social care is not being properly funded. So will the government do what Labour is demanding and bring forward social care spending. (See 10.47am.)
May says Corbyn asked about this before Christmas. He may find it strange that people say the same as they did a few weeks ago. Half of delayed discharges are in just a few areas. That shows that this is about best practice.
12.12pm GMT
Corbyn says May seems to be in denial. She won’t listen to experts. So will she listen to Sian, who works in the NHS. He quotes from an account from Sian about a child not getting proper help.
May says there have been a small number of incidents where unacceptable things took place. The NHS must learn lessons from them. She says we should be grateful for NHS professionals. The Tuesday after Christmas was the busiest day ever in the NHS. And more people are being treated by A&E than ever before.
12.08pm GMT
Jeremy Corbyn wishes MPs and members of staff a happy new year. He pays tribute to a 22-year-old soldier who died in a non-combat incident in Iraq. And he sends condolences to the family of the seven-year-old killed in York.
He says the Red Cross has described the NHS as being in a humanitarian crisis. Does May agree with Jeremy Hunt about wanting to fiddle the A&E waiting time figures.
12.04pm GMT
Mark Menzies, a Conservative, asks if May backs the construction of a new nuclear power station in the north east.
May says she does support new nuclear, especially as we move to a low carbon society. She welcomes the plan for a new nuclear power station in Cumbria.
12.03pm GMT
Chris Law, the SNP MP, says it has been six months since the EU referendum. The Scottish government is the only administration to have published a Brexit plan. Has Theresa May read it?
May says she will set out more details of the government’s plans in a few weeks. The SNP wants to leave the UK, and therefore leave the EU, she says.
11.54am GMT
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
#PMQs LIVEBLOG: This list of lucky critters will join Jeremy Cobyn and Angus Robertson in needling the PM: https://t.co/JI1P2QDdfV pic.twitter.com/Z9nC8SdKl8
11.51am GMT
PMQs will start in about 10 minutes. It is the first PMQs of 2017.
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
First #pmqs of year - @normanlamb expected to raise calls for cross party fix to NHS problems, Corbyn likely to go on NHS too
1 of @jeremycorbyn's most effective #PMQs tactics is to quote senior Tories attacking Govt. Will he use this today? https://t.co/eP4xipeF5p
11.39am GMT
Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons health committee, has used Twitter to defend Simon Stevens in the light of today’s Times story.
Simon Stevens is simply exercising his duty of candour. As set out in legislation. Thank you pic.twitter.com/m3y6GzY156
11.32am GMT
With Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, giving evidence to the Commons public accounts committee later, it is worth flagging up what David Laws, the Lib Dem former education minister, said about the claim that the government is fully funding Stevens’s five-year plan for the NHS in his book, Coalition. This is from my colleague Denis Campbell’s story about Laws’ claim.
In his new book about the coalition, Laws claims that Stevens made clear to Downing Street his view that the NHS needed an extra £15bn or £16bn over that period in order to keep running smoothly while also transforming how it cares for patients.
However, Laws writes, in extracts serialised in the Mail on Sunday: “No 10’s reaction was: ‘You’ve got to be joking.’ Stevens was told there was no way the PM and chancellor would sign up to an ‘impossible and excessive’ commitment this size. He was told: ‘Get it down to a more deliverable sum.’”
11.16am GMT
The Labour MP Frank Field has put out a statement explaining why he is one of the 20 MPs from all the main parties who has signed a letter calling for an NHS and care convention. Here is an extract from the release.
Frank has this week been contacted by an A&E nurse who describes herself as ‘broken’. The nurse has reported to Frank that up to five ambulances at a time are queuing each night to offload their patients, as the A&E unit is full to capacity. In addition, nurses are themselves sustaining injuries due to the shortage of staff available to move beds and heavy equipment.
The nurse told Frank that, ‘I am desperate. I love nursing but dread going into work every day and night as every day is the same. I have actually cried this week before going in, worrying about what I’m going into.
The funding of the NHS is currently built upon extremely shaky foundations. The impact of this inadequate funding on patient care and staff morale is becoming increasingly clear. I therefore believe that the government should immediately begin weighing up options for an increase health and social care budgets, before taking steps to merge the two services into a combined, adequately funded National Health and Social Care Service.
10.53am GMT
Guardian Health Network have published a good article written anonymously by an NHS trust chair. Here is the full piece.
Related: Our NHS trust is close to a tipping point – and we are not alone
I think describing the current situation as “a humanitarian crisis” is a bit over the top. The bigger question is that the demands of targets on individual trusts are probably – choosing my words carefully – leading to gaming. Equally we are all meant to have abandoned all elective surgery but there are strong suspicions that certain trusts are not following this; still doing certain surgery because they make so much money.
What we are seeing is a breakdown in the trust and cooperation between different parts of the NHS. So we have seen mental health almost withdrawing from the sustainability and transformation plan process. We have major acute hospitals trying to protect their pre-eminent position by being too important/big to work with others. We have clinical commissioning groups in denial about their total absence of any long-term future. We have NHS England shouting down the phone at hard-pressed managers. We have NHS Improvement texting chief executives on Saturday afternoons checking that they are on top of the situation and expecting them to be at work.
10.47am GMT
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, was on Sky’s All Out Politics a few minutes ago talking about the NHS. Here are the key points.
I think it is really, really unfair blaming Simon Stevens, who’s a civil servant who runs the NHS. The buck stops with Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt. On Monday Jeremy Hunt appeared to be blaming the public for turning up at A&E. Today they appear to be blaming this poor guy Simon Stevens. No doubt tomorrow they will be blaming the weather. They’ve got to take responsibility.
That this House supports NHS England’s four-hour standard, which sets out that a minimum of 95 per cent of all patients to A&E will be treated within four hours; notes the widespread public and medical professional support for this standard; further notes that £4.6bn has been cut from the social care budget since 2010 and that NHS funding will fall per head of population in 2018-19 and 2019-20; and calls on the government to bring forward extra funding now for social care to help hospitals cope this winter, and to pledge a new improved funding settlement for the NHS and social care in the March 2017 budget.
I’m not a clinician so I think people should listen to whatever the clinical advice is to them when they ring 111 ... I don’t think it is appropriate for me as a politician to advise people on medical matters.
Leave out from ‘House’ in line 1 to end and add ‘commends NHS staff for their hard work in ensuring record numbers of patients are being seen in A&E; supports and endorses the target for 95 per cent of patients using A&E to be seen and discharged or admitted within four hours; welcomes the government’s support for the Five Year Forward View, the NHS’s own plan to reduce pressure on hospitals by expanding community provision; notes that improvements to 111 and ensuring evening and weekend access to GPs, already covering 17m people, will further help to relieve that pressure; and believes that funding for the NHS and social care is underpinned by the maintenance of a strong economy, which under this administration is now the fastest growing in the G7.’.
10.01am GMT
Here’s Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, commenting on the Times’ story.
It is blame the expert time again from the Conservatives. Simon Stevens has heroically kept the NHS afloat, despite its scandalous lack of funding.
The government is getting slaughtered by MPs of all parties for the NHS crisis it is presiding over, so to distract attention it blames the expert.
9.56am GMT
This is what the government is saying in response to the calls for an NHS and care convention. A spokeswoman said:
We recognise the pressures of an ageing population which is why we recently announced almost £900m of additional funding for adult social care over the next two years.
This government has gone further to integrate health and social care than any other before it.
9.49am GMT
Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem former care minister, was on the Today programme this morning talking about the call backed by MPs from all the main parties for an NHS and care convention to find a long-term solution to the rising medical and care costs caused by having an ageing population.
He is urging people to back a petition supporting the idea.
.@NormanLamb on #r4today leads calls for urgent cross-party solution to #NHSCrisis. Sign the petition here:https://t.co/unf3FJQu6V
9.21am GMT
The NHS is likely to be the story of the day. With doctors warning that the NHS “will fail” this winter and patient care will suffer unless the government provides an emergency cash injection, Jeremy Corbyn may well decide to lead on the issue at PMQs. Labour is also staging its own debate on a motion calling for the NHS and social care to get more funding. And this afternoon Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, is giving evidence to a committee of MPs. That would be newsworthy anyway but the hearing should have an extra edge because Stevens is the subject of a Times splash saying Number 10 have got it in for him. Here is the Times front page story (paywall).
THE TIMES: Number 10 blames NHS chief as hospital chaos grows #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/RJptQd5HzR
Theresa May’s senior aides have privately criticised the head of the NHS as Downing Street seeks to shift the blame for mounting chaos in hospitals.
Key members of the prime minister’s team accused Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, of being insufficiently enthusiastic and responsive. They expressed their views in internal meetings, The Times was told.
We don’t recognise any of this.
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