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, what assessment has he made of the average occupancy rate of acute beds in (a) Slough, (b) the Southeast and (c) the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
Wexham Park Hospital offers acute services in Slough and is operated by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. The Department does not hold hospital site level data on bed occupancy. The latest official statistics published by NHS England for May 2023 show that the general and acute bed occupancy rate at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust was 97.7%.
For the same period, general and acute bed occupancy in the South East was 94.3%, while the general and acute bed occupancy rate in England was 93.0%. Health is a devolved matter, and the Department does not report bed occupancy in the devolved nations.
As set out in the delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, there will be 5,000 more staffed beds this year, alongside an extra 3,000 virtual ward beds. This is backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding.
We are also investing £1.6 billion over the next two years to reduce the numbers of beds occupied by patients ready to be discharged, and Same Day Emergency Care services will be in place across every hospital with a major emergency department, helping avoid unnecessary overnight stays.
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, what steps he is taking to reduce the average occupancy rate of acute beds.
Answered by Will Quince
Wexham Park Hospital offers acute services in Slough and is operated by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. The Department does not hold hospital site level data on bed occupancy. The latest official statistics published by NHS England for May 2023 show that the general and acute bed occupancy rate at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust was 97.7%.
For the same period, general and acute bed occupancy in the South East was 94.3%, while the general and acute bed occupancy rate in England was 93.0%. Health is a devolved matter, and the Department does not report bed occupancy in the devolved nations.
As set out in the delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, there will be 5,000 more staffed beds this year, alongside an extra 3,000 virtual ward beds. This is backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding.
We are also investing £1.6 billion over the next two years to reduce the numbers of beds occupied by patients ready to be discharged, and Same Day Emergency Care services will be in place across every hospital with a major emergency department, helping avoid unnecessary overnight stays.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on arranging capital funding for intensive care bed expansion at Northwick Park Hospital; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England are currently allocated an additional £250 million to support trusts to increase capacity and improve flow across urgent and emergency care. Northwick Park made a bid as part of the Urgent Emergency Care (UEC) capital fund for a modular unit to reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care services. The programme allocations will be announced in due course.
Investments outside the UEC capital fund would need to be prioritised through the operational capital of integrated care systems.
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, what hospital bed capacity levels were in each trust in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
Trust level bed availability and occupancy data is published quarterly by NHS England. The latest data is available at the following link:
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 assessment has he made of the effectiveness of the level 4 gateway referral process to support children with mental health needs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England continually assesses the effectiveness of children and young people’s Tier 4 mental health services. The National Health Service is working to reduce reliance on inpatient beds and to have fewer young people being detained under the Mental Health Act. To support this, the model of inpatient care is being reviewed and re-designed to support the move to a community-based provision of care, where children and young people can access appropriate support in a timely, effective, and patient-centred way, close to home and in the least restrictive environment.
NHS England is also committed to developing a national Tier 4 admission protocol for children and young people with multi-agency partners, which will seek to address the need for improvement and consistency in practice when identifying the clinical suitability of admission to hospital, the checks and balances required prior to making referral for a Mental Health Act assessment and promotion of the least restrictive practice principle across services. The national protocol is due to be completed by summer 2023.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
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 help reduce hospital occupancy rates in England.
Answered by Will Quince
As set out in the delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, there will be 5,000 more beds this year, alongside expanded use of virtual wards with an extra 3,000 virtual ward beds to provide over 10,000 in total by autumn. This is backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding.
We are also investing £1.6 billion over the next two years to reduce the numbers of beds occupied by patients ready to be discharged. This includes establishing ‘transfer of care hubs’ in every hospital ahead of next winter, alongside new approaches to step-down care.
Same Day Emergency Care services will also be in place across every hospital with a major emergency department, helping avoid unnecessary overnight stays in hospital.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Delivery plan for the recovery of urgent and emergency care services, how many additional staffed hospital beds have been opened since January 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
Good progress is being made in the delivery of 5,000 additional beds as part of the permanent bed base for next winter, as committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) recovery plan. NHS England has worked with integrated care boards to review local demand and capacity plans for 2023/24 and ensure local plans are in place to deliver this commitment. This is being supported by the £1 billion of funding for National Health Service capacity announced in the recovery plan.
No specific estimate has been made. As part of the implementation of the UEC recovery plan, NHS England is working with all systems so that all hospitals with type one emergency departments provide appropriate Same Day Emergency Care seven days a week with minimum opening hours of 12 hours per day.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of same day emergency care services available in each hospital with a major emergency department.
Answered by Will Quince
Good progress is being made in the delivery of 5,000 additional beds as part of the permanent bed base for next winter, as committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) recovery plan. NHS England has worked with integrated care boards to review local demand and capacity plans for 2023/24 and ensure local plans are in place to deliver this commitment. This is being supported by the £1 billion of funding for National Health Service capacity announced in the recovery plan.
No specific estimate has been made. As part of the implementation of the UEC recovery plan, NHS England is working with all systems so that all hospitals with type one emergency departments provide appropriate Same Day Emergency Care seven days a week with minimum opening hours of 12 hours per day.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital beds have been purchased with the £1 billion funding allocated by his Department to increase the hospital bed base.
Answered by Will Quince
Good progress is being made in the delivery of 5,000 additional beds as part of the permanent bed base for next winter, as committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) recovery plan. NHS England has worked with integrated care boards to review local demand and capacity plans for 2023/24 and ensure local plans are in place to deliver this commitment. This is being supported by the £1 billion of funding for National Health Service capacity announced in the recovery plan.
No specific estimate has been made. As part of the implementation of the UEC recovery plan, NHS England is working with all systems so that all hospitals with type one emergency departments provide appropriate Same Day Emergency Care seven days a week with minimum opening hours of 12 hours per day.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 the level of critical care bed capacity in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made of the critical care bed capacity in Northern Ireland as health is a devolved matter.