Stepping Hill gets £1.5million boost to ease winter pressure

An extra £1,500,000 for NHS Stockport to tackle winter pressure on A+E has had a warm welcome from local MP Andrew Stunell.

The money, announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg this week, will go towards flu vaccination to help avoid flu-related A & E visits and improvement of all NHS services & NHS 111 to prevent avoidable A&E visits this winter.

Commenting, Andrew said -

"Stepping Hill has been under huge pressure with rising numbers treating A+E as a drop-in centre. During the winter there are always far more serious cases, and this money will help keep children and older people healthy, and provide more capacity to deal with those who really do need hospital help. It is a very worthwhile way to target extra money at our NHS."

Sir Andrew is visiting A+E this week to see how the extra support will help.

Across England admissions to A&E departments has risen by 32 per cent in the past decade, with an extra one million visits by patients last year. As a result Stepping Hill was one of several NW hospitals to get a black mark for long delays in treating A+E patients.

The new money will go towards a flu vaccination programme for children between two and three years old, to reduce potential spread of the disease.

There's just one condition: the NHS Trust has to make sure at least 75 per cent of its own staff have been vaccinated against the flu this year if they want the money.

"It's a nice touch to insist staff get vaccinated themselves. The NHS would just come to a stop without the dedicated work they do, so we can't afford to have them off sick themselves" says Andrew.

The £250 million announced will provide:

• £62 million for additional capacity in hospitals - for example extra consultant A&E cover over the weekend so patients with complex needs will continue to get high-quality care;
• £57 million for community services - for example better community end of life care and hospices;
• £51 million for improving the urgent care services - for example for patients with long-term conditions;
• £25 million for primary care services - for examples district nursing, to provide care for patients in their home, preventing them from being admitted to A&E;
• £16 million for social care - for example integrating health and social care teams to help discharge elderly patients earlier and prevent readmission and;
• £9 million for other measures - for example to help the ambulance service and hospitals work better together.

£15 million of this money will also be spent on NHS 111 - to increase the number of clinicians and call handlers so that non-emergency visits to A&E can be avoided.