Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with private healthcare providers in Birmingham to support the (a) social care backlog and (b) response to covid-19 outbreak.
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and independent sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak.
No social care services are provided through the agreement with the independent providers. Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations and to develop and build local market capacity.