Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of financial deficits of NHS trusts on safety and quality of care.

The Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service to provide safe, high quality, sustainable care that provides patients with the care they need and maximises value for money for taxpayers. The Government and its arm’s length bodies are therefore working with NHS organisations to ensure that patient care is safe, high quality and financially sustainable and that swift action is taken when there are significant failings.

The Francis Report and other reports on the quality of care, which highlighted the problems of short-staffing in some parts of the NHS, were followed by increased recruitment, including temporary staff from agencies. We are taking action to ensure that the focus going forward is on employing permanent staff and on making staffing decisions in the most cost effective way to ensure that NHS organisations are providing high care, safe care while living within their budgets.