Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long on average women wait between having a mastectomy and breast reconstruction; and if he will make a statement.
The total number of finished consultant episodes (FCE) for reconstructive surgery in 2019-20 was 8,018. Of these, 6,061 had a mastectomy within the previous five years. Of these 4,557 reconstructive surgeries were on the same day as a mastectomy, with a mean waiting time of 194 days and a median waiting time of zero days.
Their were a total of 1,505 reconstructive surgeries which did not take place during the same FCE, with a mean waiting time between mastectomy and reconstructive surgery of 836 days and a median waiting time of 762 days.
A FCE is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. These figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay on hospital or in different stays in the same year.