Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of a bed occupancy rate above 85 per cent in hospitals on the adequacy of treatment of patients with covid-19.

Bed occupancy rates are an important indicator, with COVID-19 requiring an increase in intensive care beds specifically.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care confirmed on 9 March, Official Report, column 25, that the National Health Service is scaling up intensive care beds.

NHS England is looking at critical care capacity across the NHS and the availability of additional facilities of independent sector providers.

NHS England is also making sure that there is access to as much ventilation equipment as possible and, crucially, the skilled and trained people to use it.