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 adequacy of A&E services provided in the North East.

The quality of all services, including services in accident and emergency (A&E) departments, is continually reviewed as part of Sustainability and Transformation Partnership working.

To support A&E services this winter, an additional £437 million of funding was provided by the Government to support increased demand over winter and an extra £1 billion of funding has been provided to be spent on meeting adult social care needs, supporting the social care market and reducing pressure on the National Health Service this year.

NHS trusts in the North East have received over £22 million of funding to support winter capacity and the delivery of primary care streaming in A&E departments. This funding has supported trusts to implement a range of actions to support increased demand within A&E departments including an increased workforce during the busiest periods, the opening of additional escalation beds and the provision of community support to reduce admissions into hospital.

For 2018/19, the NHS has been given an additional £1.6 billion to be used by the NHS to treat a quarter of a million more patients in A&E above the 23.5 million it expects to treat this financial year.