Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to (a) allocate additional funding and (b) increase staff recruitment for NHS England in winter 2023-24.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to do so. We have invested an additional £1 billion to support capacity in urgent and emergency services this year, alongside a £250 million capital investment in hospital trusts, and £200 million for ambulances services.
This funding has been used to boost capacity in the health service this winter and beyond and aims to add 5,000 more staffed beds permanent bed base this winter, as well as increase the number of deployed ambulance hours on the road.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is her Department is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times in (a) Weaver Vale constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services aims to reduce Category 2 response times to 30 minutes on average this year. The plan sets out a range of measures to improve urgent and emergency care performance across the patient pathway. To increase capacity and improve ambulance response times, ambulance services are receiving £200 million of additional funding this year. We have already seen significant improvements in ambulance performance this year. Nationally, average Category 2 response times were more than 45 minutes faster in December than the same month last year, despite increases in demand. The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, which serves the Weaver Vale constituency, was almost 34 minutes faster this December.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the amount of money spent by the NHS on private ambulances in each of the last five years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not collected centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with trade unions on the (a) pay and (b) conditions of Emergency Care Assistants at NHS ambulance trusts.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State has not held any direct discussions with trade unions specifically on emergency care assistants’ (ECAs) pay or conditions but did meet the NHS Staff Council in December 2023. We negotiated a fair and reasonable deal with the NHS Staff Council that was accepted by a majority vote of unions. The NHS Staff Council has responsibility for negotiating the pay of staff on Agenda for Change contracts, which includes ECAs. Eligible ECAs will have received a 5% pay rise as a result of the deal as well as two non-consolidated payments. ECAs will also benefit from the non-pay elements of this deal, including further work supporting the career development and wellbeing of National Health Service staff.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to ensure that (a) North West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and (b) other ambulance trusts provide appropriate pay for Emergency Care Assistants.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Emergency care assistants working directly for the National Health Service are members of the Agenda for Change workforce. For 2024/25, the Government is looking to the independent NHS Pay Review Board (PRB) for a pay recommendation for the Agenda for Change workforce, including emergency care assistants, and will carefully consider their recommendations when we receive them.
The PRB process is the established process for determining pay uplifts for all public sector workers including NHS staff and has operated for over four decades.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with trade unions on the (a) pay and (b) conditions of Emergency Care Assistants at the South Western Ambulance Service.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State has not held any direct discussions with trade unions specifically on emergency care assistants’ (ECAs) pay or conditions but did meet the NHS Staff Council in December 2023. We negotiated a fair and reasonable deal with the NHS Staff Council that was accepted by a majority vote of unions. The NHS Staff Council has responsibility for negotiating the pay of staff on Agenda for Change contracts, which includes ECAs. Eligible ECAs will have received a 5% pay rise as a result of the deal as well as two non-consolidated payments. ECAs will also benefit from the non-pay elements of this deal, including further work supporting the career development and wellbeing of National Health Service staff.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average wait time for an ambulance was in (a) Coventry and (b) Warwickshire in each winter since 2010-2011.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not available in the format requested.
Ambulance response times are measured by response time category down to regional ambulance trust level. Coventry and Warwickshire are both served by the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS).
The current ambulance response time standards were introduced in 2017 following extensive clinical trials and include average response times by response time category. Prior to this average response times were not centrally collected.
The following table shows average ambulance response times for WMAS in December, January and February between 2017 and 2023.
Year | Month | Category 1 mean | Category 2 mean | Category 3 mean | Category 4 mean |
2017/18 | December | 00:07:03 | 00:13:12 | 0:39:49 | 1:04:30 |
| January | 00:06:48 | 00:12:22 | 0:35:20 | 0:57:11 |
| February | 00:07:03 | 00:13:14 | 0:41:35 | 1:00:51 |
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2018/19 | December | 0:06:48 | 0:12:29 | 0:36:14 | 0:51:31 |
| January | 0:06:44 | 0:12:11 | 0:35:17 | 0:51:40 |
| February | 0:06:46 | 0:12:32 | 0:38:22 | 0:51:10 |
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2019/20 | December | 0:07:02 | 0:14:56 | 1:01:08 | 1:16:39 |
| January | 0:06:59 | 0:12:29 | 0:32:47 | 0:48:36 |
| February | 0:07:09 | 0:13:06 | 0:41:16 | 0:56:45 |
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2020/21 | December | 0:06:57 | 0:14:46 | 0:47:41 | 1:01:10 |
| January | 0:06:51 | 0:14:48 | 0:51:45 | 1:03:04 |
| February | 0:06:35 | 0:12:01 | 0:25:06 | 0:35:28 |
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2021/22 | December | 0:08:19 | 0:48:19 | 3:20:50 | 3:46:03 |
| January | 0:08:10 | 0:34:44 | 2:35:07 | 2:54:24 |
| February | 0:08:11 | 0:33:36 | 2:26:14 | 3:15:26 |
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2022/23 | December | 0:09:14 | 1:31:10 | 4:48:31 | 4:33:46 |
| January | 0:08:11 | 0:27:21 | 1:39:18 | 1:51:52 |
| February | 0:08:18 | 0:25:49 | 1:54:42 | 2:37:55 |
Source: NHS England Ambulance Quality Indicators.
Note: The national standards for Category 3 and 4 incidents are 90th percentile response times, rather than mean response.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they are supporting the NHS to build additional capacity over winter, in light of pressures including high numbers of patients being admitted with winter viruses.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A range of measures are in place to support National Health Service capacity over winter. NHS winter planning started earlier this year than in previous years. Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services set the ambition in to increase the core general and acute (G&A) bed base by 5,000 permanent beds above originally planned 2022/23 levels. A copy of the plan is attached.
The latest published core G&A beds figures show over 3,700 additional core beds are now in place. The peak of total G&A bed numbers, encompassing both core and escalation beds, will depend on demand pressures, including from respiratory illnesses such as flu. This is alongside £200 million of additional funding to ambulance services this year to grow capacity and improve response times.
In July 2023, NHS England wrote to integrated care boards, trusts and primary care networks to set out a national approach to 2023/24 winter planning and the key steps to be taken across all parts of the system to meet the challenges expected from winter pressures.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for (a) the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Medal and (b) HM the King's Coronation Medal to include ambulance support staff.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual Government departments are responsible for making eligibility decisions regarding the award of each Medal to staff of organisations that fall under their sponsorship. To qualify for the Platinum Jubilee Medal, emergency services personnel were required as part of their conditions of service, to have frontline responsibility for attending the scene of 999 calls. This was consistent with criteria that applied to the Diamond Jubilee Medal.
The same criteria apply to the Coronation Medal. The Coronation Medal will also be awarded to individuals who actively contributed to the official Coronation events. There are no plans to change the eligibility criteria for either Medal.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 6 December (HL563), when the helipad at the Royal Sussex County Hospital was first opened and operational; what the costs were associated with building the helipad; what further works are required for the facility to become fully operational; and when they will be completed.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The helipad has not been opened yet and is not currently operational. The costs associated with building the helipad are currently £14.2 million. There are several activities required to allow the helipad to become operational. These include recruitment and training of the response/fire team, completion of standard operating procedures, and Civil Aviation Authority final inspection and test flights.
In addition, a review of outstanding backlog maintenance issues for the block on which the helipad is located, to ensure any items that may prevent operation of the helipad are resolved, where possible. This includes a review of the external windows. The current planning assumption is that the helipad will be operational during 2024/25.