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.

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.