Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ventilators are available in Worcestershire; and when more ventilators will be delivered.

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March there were more than 8,000 mechanical ventilators in hospitals across the United Kingdom. As of 27 May, we have around 14,000 mechanical ventilators available to National Health Service patients. In addition, there are also 10,344 non-invasive ventilators available to the NHS across the UK which were not available before the start of the crisis in mid-March plus a further 73 from the private healthcare sector.

Mechanical ventilators are allocated pro rata between England and the devolved administrations, but then within each nation decisions of where to send ventilators are based on clinical need. In England hospitals can make a bid for ventilators and these are discussed and allocated with regional NHS England and NHS Improvement teams. Two of the new mechanical ventilators have been sent to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.