Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to use University Hospital of Hartlepool as a resource to tackle the covid-19 outbreak.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked all hospitals and National Health Service facilities across the country take action to support and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. These actions include but are not exhaustive of:

Maximising inpatient and critical care capacity; preparing for, and responding to, large numbers of inpatients requiring respiratory support; supporting their staff, and maximising staff availability; support the wider population measures newly announced by Government; stress-test their operational readiness and removing routine burdens. A copy of the communication to hospitals and NHS facilities can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/03/urgent-next-steps-on-nhs-response-to-covid-19-letter-simon-stevens.pdf