§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of(a) the number of hospital admissions postponed or denied by the yellow warning issued by the London emergency bed service at 3 pm on 7 January and (b) the extent of the related increased demand for emergency admissions.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the reasons why hospitals in various health districts in the North East Thames region were unable to cope with demand for treatment at the beginning of the year and so issued a yellow warning; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe yellow alert issued recently by the London emergency bed service was occasioned by an unexpectedly sharp rise in demand for emergency admissions to hospitals in north and east London and in west Essex. The yellow alert affected 11 hospitals which were thereby encouraged to take appropriate action on elective admissions to make room for the increased emergency admissions that were mostly occurring outside London. No patient requiring urgent treatment has had that treatment cancelled. Careful and flexible bed management and proper planning of elective workload levels helps hospitals to manage unexpected demands for their services while minimising disruption of elective work.
84W
§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the statistical basis she is using to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the proposals of the Tomlinson report on the mechanism of the London emergency bed service, stating the current proportion of beds within the area of the service kept vacant for emergency admissions.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe emergency bed service and its status reports on the availability of emergency beds are for use when there are unexpected demands. The Tomlinson report does not recommend any change in this system.