Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether there is any correlation between the COVID-19 death rate in the UK and spare bed capacity in the NHS.
The National Health Service’s response in ensuring that there has been sufficient capacity in place to manage COVID-19 demand has been exceptional. We ensured that we had as many beds available as possible to care for patients with severe respiratory problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NHS expanded its critical care capacity significantly to cope with the predicted demand from COVID-19 patients. This included an increase in critical care beds, ventilators and provision of oxygen.
All COVID-19 patients who were admitted received the urgent treatment that they needed.