In her first major intervention in her new role, Thérèse Coffey announced:
1. The Adult Social Care Discharge Fund that will help speed up the safe discharge of patients from hospital this winter to free up beds as well as help to retain and recruit more care workers.
2. To improve access to general practice appointments, with the expectation that everyone who needs one should get an appointment at a GP practice within 2 weeks and the patients with the most urgent needs should be seen within the same day.
3. More support staff, an enhanced role for pharmacists and new telephone systems.
4. Changes will be made to NHS pension rules to retain more experienced NHS clinicians and remove the barriers to staff returning from retirement, increasing capacity for appointments and other services.