Monday 9th
February, 15:30pm, Grimond Room, Portcullis House
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will investigate the New Hospital Programme
update andSupporting people with
frailty outside hospitals in a two-part evidence session with
witnesses from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
and NHS England at 3.30pm on Monday,
9thFebruary.
In 2025, the government committed to delivering all 46 hospital
schemes proposed under the revised New Hospital Programme. This
would involve replacing seven hospitals built from reinforced
autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), which a report had
recommended should be replaced by 2030. By 2025 RAAC hospitals
had required ?500mn investment to mitigate the most significant
risks, a figure which is likely to increase if the 2030 deadline
is not met.
A report from the
National Audit Office (NAO) found the scheme, revised by
the current government, could cost around 50% more than first
reported in 2023, with the government setting aside a total of
?60bn funding, a ?33.8bn increase from 2023. During this session,
MPs may consider how realistic the revised scheme is, and the
potential disruptions resulting from the merging of NHS England
into the DHSC. The Committee could explore the reasons behind
delays for the design of advanced hospitals, following concerns
that proposed designs may be more expensive to run than existing
hospitals.
More than one in ten people over the age of 65 and up to half the
population aged over 85 live with frailty. In 2019, researchers
estimated that frailty was costing the UK healthcare system
around ?5.8 billion per year, a figure which is likely to
increase with an aging population. Levels of frailty are not
equally spread across the population with women more prone to
frailty than men, and lower socio-economic groups are more likely
to develop frailty at a younger age.
A recent report from the NAO
found that there were serious discrepancies across the NHS in the
diagnosis of frailty and the support offered. 32 of 106 NHS local
areas assessed less than 10% of their registered patients aged 65
or over, and nine areas assessed over 90%. The Committee will
investigate these significant and unexplained local variations
and examine the challenges GPs face in diagnosing and supporting
patients. The accountability of ensuring patients with frailty
are identified and supported could also be explored.
Witnesses from 15:30:
- Samantha Jones, Permanent Secretary, DHSC
- Sir Jim Mackey, Chief Executive Officer, NHS England
- Paul Mustow, Joint Senior Responsible Officer for the New
Hospital Programme at Department of Health and Social Care
- Charlotte Taylor, Joint Senior Responsible Officers for the
New Hospital Programme at Department of Health and Social Care
- Elizabeth O'Mahony, Interim Director General Finance at
Department of Health and Social Care, and CFO at NHS England
From approx. 16.15pm:
- Samantha Jones, Permanent Secretary, DHSC
- Sir Jim Mackey, Chief Executive Officer, NHS England
- Professor Sir , Chief Medical Officer for
England
- Dr Amanda Doyle OBE, National Director of Primary Care and
Community Services, NHS England
