Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of a proposed reduction in community inpatient capacity at Zachary Merton Hospital on the level of (a) the use of virtual wards, (b) care at home, and (c) provision at other community hospital sites in West Sussex.

The Department has not received a notification under Schedule 10A of the National Health Service Act 2006 about changes to services at Zachary Merton Hospital and has not undertaken an assessment of potential impacts.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has been asked by the Hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton to intervene in this matter and will consider and respond to that request in due course.