Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that there are enough designated beds in spinal injury centres for patients with spinal injuries resulting in paralysis.

NHS England has advised that all three centres have periodically experienced problems admitting patients promptly, especially for those patients requiring ventilation, and consequently waiting lists for admission have developed. To ensure patients awaiting admission receive appropriate assessment and support, the centres have been providing outreach care to patients at the hospitals to which they are admitted, which will usually be a major trauma centre.

The fluctuations of waiting times and the ability to discharge a patient to the next phase of their care are key factors in enabling the admission of new patients to a centre. NHS England, the eight specialist centres in England and the Spinal Injuries Association are working together to recommend changes to the continuing care process that would enable spinal cord injured patients to move to the next stage of their care as soon as clinically appropriate.

The overall bed complement for England is being reviewed through a demand and capacity project, led by the Spinal Cord Injury Clinical Reference Group (CRG). The CRG aims to produce a report in 2015-16.