Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of high dependency hospital beds to reduce waiting lists for minor operations for people who have additional medical issues that require a high dependency bed.

As part of their response to the current pandemic, providers have increased critical care surge beds. However, this has not been to specifically help reduce waiting lists. The use of these beds will be dependent upon the prevailing priorities for treatment.

Each provider will carry out a risk assessment to determine whether a patient requires a period of time within critical care post procedure and ensure that a bed is available if required.