Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure support for (a) routine care and (b) all other NHS services continues during the covid-19 outbreak.

As a result of the measures put in place to tackle COVID-19, we now appear to have passed the peak of new cases being reported and it has been decided to begin the ‘reset’ of services across the National Health Service. This reset will involve the release and redeployment of some of the treatment capacity that could have been needed while the number of COVID-19 patients was rising sharply.

All NHS organisations have therefore been asked to step-up non-COVID-19 services as soon as possible, starting with the most urgent. Decisions on how to do this will be taken locally, based on local demands for health services. The NHS issued guidance to NHS service providers on 29 April outlining the next steps for the NHS response to COVID-19.