Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of syringe drivers required to ensure the maintenance of palliative care regimes during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department is aware of recent shortages of syringe drivers and has taken direct action to source additional equipment to alleviate the situation. New supply is now arriving in the United Kingdom from abroad with several thousand units now being checked and distributed in to the National Health Service. Further quantities are becoming available through the usual suppliers to the NHS to further increase the availability of these devices which will be distributed through a national allocation process.