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Written question asked by Greg Knight (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 May 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 7 May 2024 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Tuesday, 7 May 2024. A substantive answer was provided by Helen Whately (Conservative) on Wednesday, 8 May 2024 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.


Accident and Emergency Departments and Ambulance Services: Yorkshire and the Humber

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times in ambulance and emergency departments in Yorkshire.

Answer

Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to reduce ambulance and emergency department waiting times, including in Yorkshire.

Backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, we delivered 5,000 additional core hospital beds in 2023/24 and will maintain this capacity expansion in 2024/25. Ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to increase deployed hours and reduce response times, which will also be maintained this year.

Since we published our plan there have been significant improvements in emergency care performance, including in Yorkshire. In 2023/24, average Category 2 ambulance response times in Yorkshire were over nine minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of 23%, and performance against the four-hour standard for accident and emergency care improved in each integrated care board area in Yorkshire.

The NHS Planning Guidance, published in March, commits to further improvements in emergency care performance in 2024/25, with more information available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/operational-planning-and-contracting/


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
24396
Session
2023-24
Subjects
Ambulance services Standards Accident and emergency departments Yorkshire and the Humber
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk