Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the overall budget of NHS England, how many staff it has, and how it measures its own performance in driving the delivery of services in primary and secondary care.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The overall budget for NHS England in 2023/24 is £172.1 billion. NHS England publishes quarterly data on the number of staff working in National Health Service Support Organisations and Central Bodies. The latest data for June 2023 shows there are 16,328 full time equivalent staff employed by NHS England.
In May 2023, NHS England published a delivery plan for primary care. Integrated care boards (ICBs) will lead the change for their local health systems as commissioners of primary care. The plan sets out how ICBs are expected to report progress, including though their public board reporting, with national and regional support being offered to any ICBs that are falling behind. A copy of the plan is attached.
On elective care, the NHS published a delivery plan in January 2022 setting out a clear vision for how the NHS will recover and expand elective services over three years. This includes targets to reduce maximum waiting times, so that waits of longer than a year for elective care are eliminated by March 2025, prioritising diagnosis and treatment so that 95% of patients needing a diagnostic test will receive it within six weeks by March 2025 and transforming the way the NHS provides elective care. A copy of the plan is attached.
On urgent and emergency care, performance measures include meeting the ambitions set out in our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, published in January 2023, including improving accident and emergency and ambulance performance to 76% of patients being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours by March 2024, and improved ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average over 2023 to 2024, with further improvement against both of these measures towards pre-pandemic levels in 2024 to 2025. A copy of the plan is attached.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ambulance services were at Level 4 Resource Escalation Action Plan in England as of 20 November 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 20 November 2023, there were no ambulance trusts in England at Resource Escalation Action Plan Level 4.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many mental health ambulances are in service in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England advises that the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) currently has two mental health vehicles in operation, with one of these in the Cheshire and Merseyside area.
As part of our £150 million capital investment in mental health pathways, NWAS expects seven Mental Health Response Vehicles (MHRVs) to be in operation in two phases. Five MHRVs are expected to be delivered early in 2024, and a further two MHRVs are expected in April 2024. Three of the MHRVs are expected to be deployed in Cheshire and Merseyside.
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: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Air Accidents Investigations Branch's report on the accident to Sikorsky S-92A, G-MCGYat Derriford Hospital, published on 2 November 2023, what steps her Department plan to take to improve the safety of hospital helipad operations.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is working with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to update the existing guidance for Hospital Helicopter Landing Sites. The current guidance is available at the following link:
http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=7240
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has taken steps with Cabinet colleagues to make an assessment of the potential impact of the public (a) sale and (b) use of fireworks on levels of assaults on (i) police officers, (ii) ambulance staff, (iii) firefighters and (iv) members of the public.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has not undertaken an assessment of the potential impact of the public sale and use of fireworks on levels of assaults on the emergency services or members of the public.
Any assault on a member of the public using fireworks is a police matter. In addition, any attack on the emergency services – including any those involve fireworks – can be dealt with by the police using powers in the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018.
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 ambulances were in use in the NHS in September (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of demand for patient transport services in each regional ambulance service in England in the last 12 months.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
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 the average ambulance response time to category two incidents is at least 30 minutes by the 2023-24 financial year.
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 with further improvements towards pre-pandemic levels next year.
To grow capacity and improve response times, ambulance services are receiving £200 million of additional funding this year. This is alongside over 800 new dual-crewed ambulances and specialist mental health vehicles.
The delivery plan will also add 5,000 more permanent hospital beds this winter, supported by £1 billion of dedicated funding. This is alongside £1.6 billion of funding for social care to reduce the numbers of beds occupied by patients ready to be discharged. These measures will improve patient flow through hospitals, reducing crowding in accident and emergency and cutting down on delays in ambulances handing over patients so they can quickly get back on the roads.
We have seen significant improvements in performance, with average Category 2 response times in September over 10 minutes faster than the same month last year.
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 specialist mental health ambulances were in use in the NHS in September (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This information is not held centrally.