Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms exist to mobilise additional medical staff in the event of a national emergency.

The National Health Service has arrangements to mobilise workforce capacity and resources in response to a national emergency. These include local, regional, and national mutual aid arrangements, which enable healthcare organisations to share resources where needed during an emergency. The NHS also has mechanisms for regional and national coordination to support the redeployment of personnel and the prioritisation of services during a national emergency. In addition, the NHS England national workforce team has reviewed mechanisms such as template Memorandums of Understanding which will enable rapid redeployment of the workforce and is identifying early adopters for workforce resilience measures.