Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what risks to (a) patients and (b) NHS staff his Department has identified as a result of the additional pressures on hospitals during the winter months in (i) Slough, (ii) the South East and (iii) England.

NHS England and NHS Improvement advise that a range of risks to patients and National Health Service staff in Slough, the South East and England have been identified. These include increasing levels of escalation to prioritise activity and caseloads; increasing accident and emergency attendances and mental health presentations at emergency departments; ambulance handover delays; discharge delays resulting in the postponement of elective activity; and workforce fatigue and absence.