Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report published by the Health Services Journal on 5 February that NHS England regional teams were pressurising hospitals to focus energies on treating patients with less serious conditions to improve performance against the four-hour waiting time target.

No such assessment has been made. NHS England wrote to systems and trusts on 25 January 2024 reiterating the need to improve accident and emergency performance for all patients requiring emergency care and emphasised some of the known best practice in emergency department processes to ensure delays to patient care are minimised.

Access to National Health Service care and treatment will always be based on clinical priority.