To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of extra beds available at hospitals in winter 2023-24.
Answered on
21 December 2023
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services set the ambition in to increase the core general and acute (G&A) bed base by 5,000 permanent beds above originally planned 2022/23 levels. The latest published core G&A beds figures show over 3,700 additional core beds are now in place. The peak of total G&A bed numbers, encompassing both core and escalation beds, will depend on demand pressures, including from respiratory illnesses such as flu.
Answered by
Department of Health and Social Care