Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care what steps he is taking to support NHS staff in the event of increased patient admissions as a result of covid-19.

The National Health Service will be given all the resources it needs to respond to this virus and keep the public safe.

The NHS is scaling up intensive care beds, whilst NHS England is looking at NHS organisations’ critical care capacity - including the availability of additional facilities operated by independent sector providers. They are also making sure that they have as much ventilation equipment as possible and, crucially, the skilled and trained people to use it.

The Health and Wellbeing Framework sets out the standards for what NHS organisations need to do to support staff to feel well, healthy and happy at work. It sets out clear actionable steps and provides guidance for organisations to develop and deliver a staff health and wellbeing plan. The link for this guidance can be found at the following link:

https://www.nhsemployers.org/retention-and-staff-experience/health-and-wellbeing