Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure sufficient staff in hospitals during statutory holiday periods.

In the autumn Budget the Government allocated £337 million available immediately, to allow trusts to improve resilience this winter. The package includes more hospital beds, community services, mental health services and urgent general practitioner appointments to manage the expected rise in demand.

The Government expects National Health Service trusts to ensure they have the right staff, with the right skills in place at the right time including during statutory holiday periods. The National Quality Board for England has issued guidance to support trusts as they discharge this responsibility through their own local processes.

NHS Improvement issued rostering guidance in 2016, identifying best practice in this area. The document is available at:

https://improvement.nhs.uk/uploads/documents/Rostering_Good_Practice_Guidance_Final_v2.pdf

In many cases, the Christmas holidays are the most challenging and trusts often have additional policy to ensure that during this period additional leave is not agreed.

Appropriate staffing levels are a core element of the Care Quality Commission’s registration regime and the Chief Inspector of Hospitals can also take action if hospitals are found to be compromising patient care by not having the right number or mix of staff on wards.