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 potential merits of requisitioning private hospitals to help tackle the covid-19 outbreak.
As announced by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on Saturday 21 March, the National Health Service has struck a deal with private hospitals to acquire thousands of extra beds, ventilators and medical staff to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
An extra 8,000 hospital beds across England, nearly 1,200 ventilators and almost 20,000 fully qualified staff are now available.