Thousands more hospital beds and 800 new ambulances promised amid plan to ‘fix’ emergency care

The government has pledged thousands more hospital beds and 800 new ambulances as part of a plan to “fix” emergency care as the NHS continues to face severe pressures.

Rishi Sunak has described the proposals, which ministers hope will boost under-strain emergency care in the NHS, as “ambitious and credible”.

Revealing the two-year plan, the NHS and government said 800 new ambulances, including 100 specialist mental health vehicles, and 5,000 more sustainable hospital beds would be backed by a dedicated £1bn fund.

The money for this was announced in the autumn statement.

A key part of the plan is to expand urgent care in the community to keep people away from hospitals and for them to instead be treated at home.

As part of this pledge, same-day emergency care units, staffed by consultants and nurses, will open in every hospital with a major A&E department.

There are also plans for pilots of new approaches to NHS step-down care, with patients receiving rehabilitation and physiotherapy at home in some instances.

But Labour accused the government of “watering down standards for patients”.

At the turn of the new year, the prime minister made cutting NHS waiting times one of his five priorities.

Announcing the latest emergency care plan, he said: “Urgent and emergency care is facing serious challenges but we have an ambitious and credible plan to fix it.”

“It will take time to get there but our plan will cut long waiting times by increasing the number of ambulances, staff and beds – stopping the bottlenecks outside A&E and making sure patients are seen and discharged quickly.

“If we meet this ambition, it will represent one of the fastest and longest sustained improvements in emergency waiting times in NHS history.”

Health Secretary Steve Barclay added: “Today’s plan, which is backed by record investment, aims to rapidly cut waiting times, helping to deliver on one of the government’s five priorities, while giving patients the confidence that health and social care services will be there for them when they need them.”

The proposals also include:

• The creation of virtual wards to see patients treated from home while monitored by medics through daily visits or video calls

• Plans to make it easier for NHS staff to move between hospitals and work in services like 111

• More options for call handlers to work from home

• Efforts to expand the number of emergency medical technicians

• Greater use of student and apprentice paramedics

• Training more staff in mental health

The Department of Health said this weekend that 3,000 “hospital at home” beds being created before next winter.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said “patients will be waiting longer than is safe” under the plans.

“13 years of Conservative mismanagement of the NHS has left patients waiting longer than ever before for an ambulance or in A&E,” he said.

“Now Rishi Sunak is watering down standards for patients. Even if the NHS achieves his targets, patients will be left waiting longer than is safe.

“Expecting the Conservatives to fix the crisis in the NHS is like expecting an arsonist to put out the fire they started, it is just not going to happen.

“Only Labour can be trusted to provide the investment and reform needed to treat patients on time again. We will train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses a year, paid for by abolishing non-doms.”

Ministers want to ensure that 76% of A&E patients are seen within four hours by next March, while category two ambulance response times – such as suspected strokes, heart attacks, burns and epilepsy – get to an average of 30 minutes over the next year.

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard described the plan as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to put the NHS on a sustainable footing”.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, called it an “important roadmap”, but warned: “Success over the next two years will not only depend on NHS staff continuing to go above and beyond, but also on concerted action to reduce the numbers of people needing to come into contact with emergency and urgent care services in the first place.”

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

The plan comes as Mr Sunak’s government is locked in a bitter and ongoing dispute with nurses and ambulance workers over pay and conditions, with further walkouts planned for February.

NHS leaders are making contingency plans with the biggest walkout in the health service’s history looming.

Ambulance staff and nurses are both set to go on strike on 6 February – taking industrial action on the same day for the first time ever.

Earlier this month, Mr Barclay appeared to rule out a 10% pay rise for nurses, insisting the move was “not affordable”.