Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to restore NHS services promptly that have been temporarily closed at (a) Chorley and South Ribble hospital A&E and (b) other hospitals in England during the covid-19 outbreak.

The accident and emergency department at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital has been temporarily modified to facilitate the treatment of acutely ill COVID-19 patients on a single site, at the Royal Preston Hospital. This temporary change is to ensure the most efficient and safe use of the available resources.

It has been necessary to implement some other temporary service changes across England in response to COVID-19. These will be kept under review during the period of the pandemic and services will be reinstated at an appropriate future juncture.