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 NHS capacity in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Department has provided the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust with £4.1 million from the Elective Recovery Targeted Investment Fund in 2021/22, for investment in the estate and digital initiatives to aid elective recovery through efficiency and reconfiguration. The Trust also received £7.5 million in 2020/21 for the Royal Stoke University Hospital to eradicate backlogs and £17.6 million to improve capacity and patient flow, including through the creation of a new 26 bed acute inpatient ward at Royal Stoke University Hospital.