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 that hospitals have sufficient capacity for patients.

Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning healthcare services, including hospitals, to meet the needs of their local populations. We are asking trusts to place a special focus on reducing bed occupancy ahead of Christmas, creating additional capacity and improving patient flow.

The New Hospital Programme (NHP) will build “right-sized” hospitals, based on robust assumptions appropriate for local health needs that support the shift from hospital to community. The NHP has developed a National Health Service demand and capacity model which reflects changes in demographics, including predictions for population growth, which will underpin assumptions when right-sizing hospitals. The NHP Plan for Implementation, published on the GOV.UK website, sets out the delivery timeline for the schemes in the programme. Further information on the NHP Plan for Implementation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome/new-hospital-programme-plan-for-implementation