Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce waiting times (a) for NHS operations and (b) between admission and treatment at A&E in (i) East Sussex and (ii) Brighton and Hove.

This information is not collected in the format requested.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has been supported to invest £30 million in new facilities to reduce waiting times in accident and emergency (A&E) departments. This includes 18 additional acute beds at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, and as a result has seen a 4% improvement in performance against the four hour A&E standard compared to previous months.

The Trust is planning for further additional bed capacity, including a £500 million capital build to improve acute bed capacity, and there has been significant system support from clinical commissioning groups and community trusts to increase out of acute hospital support.