NHS patients 'could be treated in booths in hospital car park' as part of contingency plans

Patients could soon receive emergency care in temporary booths erected in hospital parking lots under new emergency plans unveiled yesterday by the Commons Health Secretary

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said "modular units" will be installed to increase the capacity of hospital emergency departments (

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Some A&E patients could be treated in hospital car parks under alarming new contingency plans designed to tackle the crisis in the NHS.

An urgent recovery plan for the National Health Service was announced in the House of Commons yesterday by Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who admitted that "the experience of some patients and staff" in the care of emergency had "not been acceptable" in recent weeks.

He attributed crippling waits for treatment in hospitals to a combination of flu-like pressures and continued Covid hospital admissions, which he said had combined with "exceptional levels of activity scarlet fever" and an increase in streptococcus A.

Mr. Barclay said the number of hospital admissions for flu had increased sevenfold in one month.

The MP for North East Cambridgeshire put forward several proposals which would be rolled out to improve patient outcomes in the short term and into next winter.

The minister told the House of Commons that £50 million would be spent on the new temporary units (

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Revealing that the government would spend £50m to install temporary units that would increase physical capacity around emergency services, he said: "By using modular units, that capacity will be available in weeks, not in months, and our £50 million investment will focus on modular support thi...