Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost was of setting up, running and closing the Nightingale hospitals.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Total projected funding for the Nightingale hospital programme was ring-fenced at £466 million. National Health Service providers are currently auditing the accounts for 2020/21 and the final spending outturn will be published in due course.
NHS England and NHS Improvement advise that regions were responsible for co-ordinating the redistribution of assets including beds and medical equipment from the Nightingale hospitals. Each host trust is responsible for managing a list of these assets. The remaining surplus stock has been collected and made available for national redistribution under the existing warehousing, asset tracking and logistics contracts.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medically trained people have returned from retirement to relieve shortages in response to requests.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the number of beds in NHS England hospitals.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
National Health Service bed capacity is not fixed and can be flexible to meet changes in demand.
The seasonal flu and COVID-19 booster vaccination programmes also aim to reduce the level of hospital admissions and increase bed capacity. We have also provided an additional £478 million to the NHS for the rest of this year to continue the enhanced hospital discharge programme, to maximise the number of available beds.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what evidence his Department holds of predicted future hospitalisation rates from the Omicron variant of covid-19.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In the absence of any data on disease severity or the likely transmission rates in the community, it is not possible to make reliable estimates. As data on transmission rates becomes clearer over time and initial hospitalisations allow assessment of severity and care needs, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will be able to project predicted future rates. The UKHSA and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to generate data as quickly as possible.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the costs are of NHS Test and Trace each month.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The costs for NHS Test and Trace vary each month according to the prevalence of COVID-19. The budget for NHS Test and Trace activities in 2021/22 is £15 billion. On average this equates to approximately £1.25 billion per month.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the funding increase for the NHS announced in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 will be spent on reducing waiting lists in the NHS in England.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have made £2 billion available this year to start to tackle the backlog. Over the next three years, we plan to spend more than £8 billion to support elective recovery and reduce waiting lists in England.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the reorganisation costs for NHS England resulting from the establishment of new management and commissioning bodies.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There has been no specific assessment. NHS England and NHS Improvement are providing guidance and support during the abolition of clinical commissioning groups and the establishment of integrated care boards. NHS England and NHS Improvement are managing changes required to adapt software and processes managed by third-party suppliers and we expect these costs to be absorbed within NHS England’s budgets.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the cost of the reorganisation of clinical commissioning groups.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There has been no specific assessment. NHS England and NHS Improvement are providing guidance and support during the abolition of clinical commissioning groups and the establishment of integrated care boards. NHS England and NHS Improvement are managing changes required to adapt software and processes managed by third-party suppliers and we expect these costs to be absorbed within NHS England’s budgets.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to reduce the costs of NHS Test and Trace.
Answered by Maggie Throup
NHS Test and Trace activities transferred to the UK Health Security Agency with effect from 1 October 2021. The recent Spending Review confirmed £9.6 billion for key COVID-19 programmes and related health spending. This allows for a reduced test and trace programme and will reduce costs from the £15 billion allocated in 2021/22. Plans are being developed to determine how best to reduce costs and activities to operate within a lower funding allocation from April 2022.
However, in line with the approach taken throughout the pandemic, the response will be kept under review and cross-Government discussions are ongoing to determine the appropriate level of COVID-19 test, trace and isolate activities.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish a detailed plan for reducing the waiting lists of NHS England including details on staffing and use of current NHS capacity.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS England and NHS Improvement will publish a delivery plan for recovering elective services later this year.