Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to (1) the care failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Morecambe Bay, Stafford Hospital, and Gosport War Memorial Hospital, (2) the number of NHS staff not vaccinated against COVID-19, and (3) the continued restrictions on face-to-face meetings with GPs, what assessment they have made as to whether the NHS is fit for purpose.

We are supporting the National Health Service to recover from the impact of the pandemic, improve the quality and safety of care, increase NHS staff vaccination rates and the availability of face-to-face appointments with general practitioners. The Department has regular discussions with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the provision of services. We are currently completing the annual assessment of the performance of the NHS in England for 2020/21, which will be published in due course.