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<p>My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State meets NHS England on a weekly basis and
discusses a wide range of topics, including accident and emergency (A&E) performance
data. Monitor, the Care Quality Commission, and the NHS Trust Development Authority
also have oversight of trust A&E performance, and are involved in these meetings.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>On the back of a strong economy the Government has made £700
million – the highest ever figure – available to the NHS specifically to help with
winter pressures. The first tranche of this money was made available earlier than
ever.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Local plans to spend this money provide for nearly
8,800 extra staff and almost 6,500 extra beds. Over £25 million is going towards increasing
access to general practitioners (GPs), including later and weekend appointments. £50
million will help ambulance services meet rising demand for emergency cases and a
separate fund of £250 million will support an extra 100,000 operations so people can
be seen quicker and before they need to be admitted as an emergency case.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>This money will also support a range of local initiatives to improve
urgent and emergency care including seven day pharmacy services, improvements to NHS
111 and GP out of hours services, short stay units for elderly patients and improvements
to hospital discharge processes.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Across Greater Manchester
£30 million has been provided with local plans for this to fund over 70 doctors, 300
nurses and 200 extra beds. Clinical commissioning groups in Greater Manchester, as
system leaders, are working with NHS England and local partners including local authorities
to implement local winter initiatives.</p><p> </p>
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