Julian has welcomed the news that Airedale NHS Foundation Trust will receive £4.12 million to establish a new Urgent Treatment Centre at Airedale General Hospital.
It is one of thirty schemes across the country that will create 900 beds, improve space and assessment areas in A&Es, and develop and improve four Same Day Emergency Care services and five Urgent Treatment Centres.
Funded by £250 million nationally, these upgrades will support urgent and emergency care capacity to relieve pressure on A&Es, while ensuring that NHS England meets its target to provide over 5,000 additional permanent beds for this winter.
Alongside this latest announcement, steps taken to drive down waiting times and improve wider NHS services have resulted in an uptick in A&E performance from this point last year.
The Delivery Plan to Recover Urgent and Emergency Care Services, aimed at recovering these services following the pandemic, has dedicated £1 billion to develop urgent and emergency care capacity; £200 million for ambulance services to increase the number of ambulance hours on the road; and an additional £1.6 billion of discharge funding over the next two years, building on the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund released in September 2022.
Julian Smith said, “Reducing NHS waiting times is one of the Government’s top priorities. Each and every one of us has benefitted from the fantastic services and dedicated staff in the NHS, and we also appreciate the considerable pressure it is under.
“That is why the Government has committed a huge array of resources to ensuring it is fit for purpose and delivers for those who need it.
“This latest announcement will make a real difference to our local NHS services.
“Coming on the back of the inclusion of Airedale General Hospital in the New Hospital Programme, which will see a brand new five-hundred-bed hospital built by 2030, and the establishment of a community diagnostic centre in Ripon by Christmas 2023, the Government is taking concrete action to develop and support the NHS across Skipton and Ripon.”
