Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS hospital beds are in private rooms.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 the provision of specialist (a) wheelchairs, (b) beds and (c) armchairs for tall disabled people.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services. National Health Service trusts work with the patient and wheelchair supplier to best meet the patient’s needs and requirements.
A typical hospital bed is 200 centimetres long and can be extended by 20 centimetres with pressure relieving infills available. With regards to armchairs, the NHS Supply Chain works with customers and suppliers if any bespoke products are needed in the market.
Equipment provision, where required for use in peoples’ own homes, is typically through a community equipment service; these are usually funded through a combination of the local authority and local NHS and provided via an outsourced provider or a locally-run service.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many community hospital beds will be provided in each of the next five years in Somerset.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of community hospital beds operational varies over the course of the year in response to supply and demand. For example, fewer beds are needed during the summer.
The Government expects neighbourhood services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. While we will be clear on the outcomes that we expect, we will give significant licence to tailor the approach to local need, and while the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, the service will look different in rural communities, coastal towns, or deprived inner cities.
Through our National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP), we will work with places across all systems to spread and scale up good practice and learning, create exemplars, and build the culture and capability required for delivery. This will be an inclusive large-scale change programme for all system partners.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
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 potential implications for his policies of reports that patients at Pilgrim Hospital outpatients department are being left for extended periods without access to beds due to lack of bed availability; and what steps he is taking to ensure timely access to inpatient care in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is clear that patients should expect and receive the highest standard of care and accepts that urgent and emergency care performance has been below the high standards that patients should expect in recent years. Providing care in corridors, and other inappropriate settings, is completely unacceptable.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out the steps we are taking to ensure at least 78% of patients in A&E departments are seen within four hours, to reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge from an emergency department, and to reduce ambulance handover times to a maximum of 45 minutes.
NHS England has been working with trusts to put in place new reporting arrangements related to the use of temporary escalation spaces, to drive improvement. Subject to a review of data quality, this information will be published shortly, and we will consider how this data could be published on a more regular basis.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the ratio of community hospital beds to acute hospital beds is in (a) England (b) Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and (c) the Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on both general and acute beds and intermediate beds at a national and regional level is published monthly on the NHS England website.
Data on general and acute beds is available at the following link:
Data on intermediate care beds is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/intermediate-care/
Trust-level data is not published for intermediate care beds.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the comparative cost to the NHS of (a) hospice inpatient beds and (b) acute hospital beds for palliative care patients.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including charitable hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and those important to them. As charitable hospices are independent, autonomous organisations, they are free to set their own wages and some associated costs, and the Department does not hold or collect this information.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department issues guidance on a target ratio of step-down beds to acute beds in an acute hospital’s catchment area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neither the Department nor NHS England have issued specific guidance on a national fixed target ratio for step-down beds to acute beds. The number of step-down beds should be determined by local population needs and patient flow assessments.
Since 2024, NHS England supports this local determination by making available data on the use and occupancy of community beds, which may provide step-down or step-up care, available to systems and service providers.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of constituency boundary changes on the availability of (a) discharge to assess and (b) respite care beds in South Cotswolds constituency; and what steps he is taking to ensure local provision of those beds.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hospital discharge and respite care planning and provision are the responsibility of local authorities and local National Health Service bodies, including integrated care boards, trusts and foundation trusts. The geographical footprint of these bodies is not affected by constituency boundary changes.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
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 continuity of community equipment services following the insolvency and receivership of NRS Healthcare; and what plans are in place to minimise disruption to patients reliant on (a) wheelchairs, (b) mobility aids, (c) hospital beds and (d) other essential medical equipment to prevent impact on (i) hospital discharge and (ii) independent living.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise and share your concerns around ensuring the continuity of community equipment services following the insolvency of NRS Healthcare.
Community equipment services are vital. The Partners in Care and Health programme, funded by the Government, has been working closely with local authorities to support continued service provision following the insolvency of NRS Healthcare.
Local authorities have a statutory duty under various pieces of legislation, including the Care Act 2014 and the Children and Families Act 2014, to ensure the provision of disability aids and community equipment, to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the average waiting times were for discharge pathways (a) 0, (b) 1, (c) 2 and (d) 3 in (i) England, (ii) Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ICB area and (iii) Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the average wait times for individual discharge pathways is not held centrally.
Data on the number of adult patients in acute hospital beds who are medically ready for discharge but not discharged, is published monthly by NHS England. For patients with a length of stay of at least 14 days, the average number of patients experiencing delayed discharge is broken down by reason for delay, some of which relate to specific discharge pathways. The publication also reports the number of people discharged onto each discharge pathway each month. This data is available at an England, integrated care board, and National Health Service trust level, and is available at the following link: