Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure NHS providers have the financial support they need during the covid-19 outbreak.

We are taking significant steps to ease operational pressures and provide financial support to National Health Service providers, so they are able to focus on the response to the outbreak.

These include an additional payment for 2019-20 at year-end to reflect any initial costs reported due to COVID-19. Additionally, NHS England and NHS Improvement have suspended the operational planning process for 2020-21. In replacement, simplified block contracts have been agreed between commissioners and NHS providers which will guarantee a nationally calculated monthly payment, between the period 1 April 2020 to 31 July 2020 to cover costs.