Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment their department has made of the adequacy of availability of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines in NHS hospitals in (a) England and (b) Merseyside; and what urgent steps the Government is taking to ensure adequacy of supply of that equipment during the covid-19 outbreak.

The availability of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines for hospitals is monitored at a national level as part of the COVID-19 response. The current stock of machines held by NHS Supply Chain exceeds the demands of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling’s scenarios for this winter. National Health Service trusts can order additional equipment as required from the national reserve.