Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will develop a long term plan for managing winter pressures.

Winter is a particularly challenging time for the National Health Service with demand for services increasing significantly with the onset of cold weather and flu. Our recovery plan, published on 30 January 2023, set out how we will improve urgent and emergency care services this winter and in future years by increasing hospital beds, scaling up virtual wards and delivering new ambulances.

This is all backed by a £1 billion dedicated funding to support capacity in urgent and emergency services this year, alongside a £250 million capital investment in hospital trusts and £200 million for ambulances services to increase ambulance hours on the road.