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 reduce ambulance handover delays.

NHS England has written to all trusts and systems to ensure that actions are taken to prevent ambulances waiting for longer than 30 minutes before transferring patients to the accident and emergency (A&E) department. This includes immediately moving patients who have completed emergency medical care from A&E to maintain capacity for new patients.

NHS England is providing targeted support to some of the hospitals facing the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients into the care of hospitals, to identify short and longer-term interventions. In 2020/21, £450 million was invested to upgrade A&E facilities in over 120 National Health Service trusts to increase capacity, reduce overcrowding and minimise delays in ambulance handovers.