Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average (a) daily cost per adult held in the emergency department and (b) length of stay was in that department in the latest period for which data is available in each acute trust within the Lancashire and South Cumbria integrated care system boundary.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not available in the format requested. NHS England published the general and acute length of bed stay data for 2022/23, with data available at trust level but not an integrated care system level, which is available at the following link:
The length of stay in an adult intensive care unit hospital bed and an elderly care hospital bed is not collected centrally by the Department, or published by NHS England. NHS England publishes the median total time spent in accident and emergency, from arrival to admission, transfer, or discharge, and again with data available at trust level but not an integrated care system level, which is available at the following link:
The information requested on average daily costs by acute trust and integrated care system is not collected centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to improve the capacity of the Accident and Emergency department of Queen’s Hospital Romford.
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 increase capacity and improve accident and emergency wait times, so that 76% of patients are seen within four hours, by March 2024.
The management of specific accident and emergency services is a decision for local National Health Service commissioners and providers. In making these decisions they will take into account the needs of their local populations and make the best use of available resource to maximise patient outcomes. A surgical assessment unit recently opened at Queen’s Hospital Romford, which should increase capacity and reduce accident and emergency wait times.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people attended an A&E department with a dental issue in each year since 2019.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients, and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment.
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services aims to deliver one of the fastest and longest sustained improvements in emergency waiting times. This includes bringing down accident and emergency wait times for 76% of patients being admitted, transferred, or discharged, within four hours by March 2024. Data on how many people attended an accident and emergency department with a dental issue is available at the following link:
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, if she will publish the average time taken between a 999 call for help and first hospital treatment for patients suffering a severe heart attack in each financial year since 2010-11.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not collected centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report published by the Health Services Journal on 5 February that NHS England regional teams were pressurising hospitals to focus energies on treating patients with less serious conditions to improve performance against the four-hour waiting time target.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. NHS England wrote to systems and trusts on 25 January 2024 reiterating the need to improve accident and emergency performance for all patients requiring emergency care and emphasised some of the known best practice in emergency department processes to ensure delays to patient care are minimised.
Access to National Health Service care and treatment will always be based on clinical priority.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the safety and health of patients most at risk of any pressure from NHS England regional teams to focus energies on treating patients with less serious conditions to improve performance against the four-hour waiting time target.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. NHS England wrote to systems and trusts on 25 January 2024 reiterating the need to improve accident and emergency performance for all patients requiring emergency care and emphasised some of the known best practice in emergency department processes to ensure delays to patient care are minimised.
Access to National Health Service care and treatment will always be based on clinical priority.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2024 to Question 13332, if she will publish the correspondence sent from NHS England to systems and trusts on 25 January on improving A&E performance.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published the correspondence to integrated care systems and trusts. The letters are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/76-four-hour-standard-regional-letters/
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to continue opt-out testing for HIV in emergency departments.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the HIV Action Plan, NHS England has expanded opt-out HIV testing in 34 emergency departments in local areas in England with extremely high HIV prevalence, as well as the whole of London, including some areas with high HIV prevalence. This programme began in 2022 and is funded by NHS England until the end of March 2025. In the first 21 months, the programme has preliminarily identified 685 people newly diagnosed with HIV and 384 people previously diagnosed with HIV, but not in care.
Given the success of the programme, the Department has committed an additional £20 million for new research, which will involve an expansion and evaluation of opt-out blood borne virus testing, including HIV, in 47 additional emergency departments in local areas with high HIV prevalence across England. Funding will support 12 months of testing for each emergency department, to begin in April 2024, but it is at the discretion of individual sites when the testing will commence.
Decisions on whether to continue offering opt-out HIV testing in emergency departments in local areas with high and extremely high HIV prevalence will be based on the outcomes of the current opt-out HIV testing programme and research project, as well as available funding.
There are currently no plans to assess the merits of opt-out HIV testing in general practice (GP) or other clinical settings, but HIV testing is already offered and recommended in some circumstances in a range of clinical settings, including GP surgeries, in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s testing guidance. This guidance is available at the following link:
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, if she will publish the correspondence to NHS trusts requiring emergency departments to prioritise patients not in need of admission to hospital.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such correspondence has been issued to NHS Trusts.
NHS England wrote to systems and trusts on 25 January reiterating the need to improve A&E performance for all patients requiring emergency care, and emphasised some of the known best practice in emergency department processes to ensure delays to patient care are minimised.
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, in what proportion of cases presented at urgent care and emergency departments has alcohol been recorded as (a) a contributing or (b) major factor in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not available in the format requested. The following table shows the number of attendances at accident and emergency departments in 2022/23 where an alcohol-related first diagnosis code is recorded, excluding cases where alcohol was a factor but not the main diagnosis:
Description | Attendances | Percentage of total attendances |
Alcohol intoxication (disorder) | 59,070 | 0.25% |
Alcohol dependence (disorder) | 14,884 | 0.06% |
Toxic effect of alcohol (disorder) | 2,182 | 0.01% |
Uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal (disorder) | 14,436 | 0.06% |
Alcohol withdrawal-induced convulsion (disorder) | 9,997 | 0.04% |
Total | 100,569 | 0.43% |
Source: Hospital Accident & Emergency Activity, 2022-23 from NHS Digital.