Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional support is being provided to hospital departments whose waiting times exceed stated NHS targets.

The Department chairs weekly meetings with the National Health Service and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to provide support and oversight of national performance. The Urgent and Emergency Care reform programme and the Emergency Care Intensive Support Team provide dedicated expertise and support to hospital Trusts as needed.

The NHS Long Term Plan will transform urgent and emergency care, whilst NHS England’s ‘Operational and Planning Guidance for 2019/20’ sets out deliverables against key performance areas. This has been supported by the NHS Funding Bill which provides a record financial commitment of £33.9 billion more each year by 2024.

Actions include:

- Increasing Same Day Emergency Care – to help ensure patients are not admitted to hospital unnecessarily;

- Over 1,000 more hospital beds open over winter this year than there were last year;

- Work to reduce extended lengths of stay and delayed transfers of care – supported by further £240 million again for adult social care via the Better Care Fund; and

- Increasing designation of Urgent Treatment Centres as an alternative for accident and emergency (A&E), to help manage increasing demand.