ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

That this House views with alarm the warnings of a growing crisis in accident and emergency departments across the country from Chris Hopson, the Chief Executive of the Foundation Trust Network; notes that this crisis is in large part the product of a funding system in which hospitals are penalised for increased use of accident and emergency departments; further notes that this crisis is being made worse by acute staff shortages leading to junior doctors working very long hours in intolerable conditions; further notes that the Secretary of State for Health has called for a change in the provision of healthcare to try to reduce the use of hospital beds as appears to have happened in Sweden; believes that any such change in healthcare provision will take considerable time to implement; and therefore calls on the Secretary of State for Health to take immediate action to change the funding system for accident and emergency departments and to address the acute staff shortgages in order to prevent the collapse of accident and emergency provision across the country.