Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of ambulance crews being unable to hand over patients to hospital staff within 15 minutes of arrival on patient safety.

Patient handovers at accident and emergency (A&E) must take place within agreed timeframes. NHS England is providing targeted support to some hospitals facing delays in the transfer of patients from ambulances to identify interventions. This is in addition to a national Winter Improvement Collaborative programme to assist trusts to identify the causes of delays and implement best practice.

The National Health Service will increase bed capacity by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds, alongside a £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund to improve patient flow through hospitals and reduce waiting times in transferring ambulance patients to A&E. In 2020/21, we invested £450 million to upgrade A&E facilities in more than 120 NHS trusts to increase physical capacity and reduce overcrowding.