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Access to NHS Services

No, because I have already given way to the hon. Lady. I was talking about what we need to do to co-ordinate urgent care. It is necessary for NHS Direct properly to be franchised out. As I have told the House before, NHS Direct call handlers, ambulance trust call handlers and out of hours call handlers can all be in the same room—for example, as they are in Cornwall or Norwich—yet they cannot have an integrated system of triage and referral to deal with patients. When patients ring in, they have to speak to each service separately. After all these years, that system is absurd. Walk-in centres are another issue that has been left in the Secretary of State’s in-tray. Two articles have been published, one of which said that walk-in centres have had no impact on access to emergency care locally and the other said that they have had no impact in reducing demand on GP services. Questions about the costs and benefits of walk-in centres need to be dealt with. Somewhere there is a review of funding for walk-in centres. It has not been published, yet cover at the walk-in centre in Luton has dropped from about 107 hours a week, including weekends, to 20 hours during weekdays only.