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NHS England welcomes £250m funding to help ease winter pressures

NHS England has today welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement that local health and care systems are to receive £250m to ensure the NHS is better prepared for winter.

The money will be targeted at local systems which will benefit the most from the extra funding.  NHS England, Monitor, the NHS Trust Development Authority and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services will continue to work closely with the local NHS to identify those areas that will benefit most from this extra funding.

Given with conditions, the money will be used to support initiatives that best address local needs, with hospitals having to show how they have made improvements.

The NHS 111 service is part of the solution to alleviating pressure on accident and emergency departments and £15m of this money will be spent on improving the capacity of NHS 111 to enable it to deal with the pressures winter brings.

Dame Barbara Hakin, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive of NHS England said:

“. We are working with our colleagues at Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority, and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, to ensure money is targeted at areas where we believe it can best be used to improve services for patients during winter and to make sure patients get the right care”.

“This is also excellent news for the NHS 111 service. This service is now delivering good quality and  this will allow us to put in place additional contingency for the winter period.”

Read a copy of the full press release.