Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of Surgeons of England’s report entitled Elective Surgery during COVID-19, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that surgical teams throughout the UK have access to covid-light sites for their patients.
To help facilitate a safe increase in elective capacity NHS England has prioritised infection prevention and control.
Additionally, the National Health Service has reached an unprecedented agreement with independent providers, enabling the utilisation of staff, equipment and facilities by the NHS to enable the expansion of elective care capacity. Locally agreed approaches have been determined as to the use of these sites and the design of this collaboration.