Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action is being taken to reduce waiting times in A&E departments in NHS England, following the publication of A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions figures for October which found that nearly 30 per cent of patients waited four hours or more to be assessed and nearly 45,000 patients waited for more than 12 hours for a bed following admission.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, we are taking a range of measures to improve patient flow through hospital and reduce waiting times in accident and emergency departments. These include the delivery of 5,000 more staffed, permanent beds this year compared to 2022/23 plans, supported by £1 billion of dedicated funding. This is alongside a further £1.6 billion of funding over two years to support the National Health Service and local authorities to ensure timely and effective discharge from hospital. We are also improving hospital discharge processes by establishing ‘Care transfer hubs’ in every hospital ahead of winter, alongside scaling up the use of virtual wards by an additional 3,000 beds, with over 10,000 beds now available nationally.
A copy of the plan is attached.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS England publication of 20 January 2023 entitled Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, what his planned timetable is for delivering 5,000 additional permanent beds; and what steps the Government is taking to progress delivery of those additional beds.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery Plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services set the ambition to increase the core general and acute bed base, above originally planned 2022/23 levels, by 5,000 sustainable, permanent beds in 2023/24. This takes the funded core bed base to over 99,000. NHS England in continuing to work with local systems and trusts to deliver this ambition.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of hospital beds for acute treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery Plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services set the ambition to increase the core general and acute bed base, above originally planned 2022/23 levels, by 5,000 sustainable, permanent beds in 2023/24. This takes the funded core bed base to over 99,000. NHS England in continuing to work with local systems and trusts to deliver this ambition.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will develop a long term plan for managing winter pressures.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Winter is a particularly challenging time for the National Health Service with demand for services increasing significantly with the onset of cold weather and flu. Our recovery plan, published on 30 January 2023, set out how we will improve urgent and emergency care services this winter and in future years by increasing hospital beds, scaling up virtual wards and delivering new ambulances.
This is all backed by a £1 billion dedicated funding 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 to increase ambulance hours on the road.
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 he has made of (a) the total number of beds and (b) the number of occupied beds on virtual wards in England.
Answered by Will Quince
Published National Health Service data for September 2023 shows that virtual ward ‘bed’ capacity was 10,421, of which 6,807 were occupied.
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, how many patients were treated in virtual beds in the NHS in England in September 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Published data from NHS England for virtual wards show that in September 2023, there were 6,807 patients treated in virtual beds. The total number of virtual beds available in September was 10,421.
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, how many virtual beds are in use in the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Published data from NHS England for virtual wards show that in September 2023, there were 6,807 patients treated in virtual beds. The total number of virtual beds available in September was 10,421.
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, with reference to the policy paper entitled 2023 to 2025 Better Care Fund policy framework, published on 5 April 2023, how his Department is using the additional £1.6 billion funding for the discharge of hospital patients into social care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2023 to 2025 Better Care Fund policy framework allows areas to plan more strategically over a longer period. We have committed at least £16.8 billion to improve discharge, as well as reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care, social care, intermediate care, unpaid carers and housing. This includes an extra £600 million in 2023/24 and £1 billion in 2024/25 allocated via the Discharge Fund to local authorities and integrated care boards. They have the flexibility to spend this in ways they deem most appropriate to assist local areas in freeing up the maximum number of hospital beds and reducing bed days lost through, for example, short-term packages of care, community-based reablement capacity or building the workforce capacity needed to continue to support care users.
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, whether it remains his policy to provide 5,000 new hospital beds for winter 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of our urgent and emergency care recovery plan, the National Health Service continues work to progress the delivery of an additional 5,000 permanent core beds this winter. The recovery plan remains the Government’s approach to improving urgent and emergency care services.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that 76% of patients are admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours in A&Es by March 2024.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under our Delivery plan to recover urgent and emergency care services, we are taking a range of measures to improve patient flow through hospital and reduce waiting times in accident and emergency.
These include the delivery of 5,000 more staffed, permanent beds this year compared to 2022/23 plans, supported by £1 billion of dedicated funding. This is alongside a further £1.6 billion of funding for social care to reduce the numbers of beds occupied by patients ready to be discharged. We are also improving hospital discharge processes by establishing ‘Care transfer hubs’ in every hospital ahead of next winter, alongside new approaches to step-down care to free up bed capacity for those who need it. We are also scaling up the use of virtual wards by an additional 3,000 beds, with over 10,000 beds now available nationally.