Surgery: Waiting Lists

(asked on 11th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department's policy is on clinical commissioning groups introducing minimum waiting times for elective surgery.


Answered by
Philip Dunne Portrait
Philip Dunne
This question was answered on 18th October 2017

The NHS Constitution outlines that patients have a right to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-urgent conditions. If this is not possible, the National Health Service must take all reasonable steps to offer a suitable alternative provider that can treat them sooner, if this is clinically appropriate and it is what the patient wants.

Clinical priority is the main determinant of when patients should be treated followed by the chronological order of when they were added to the list. Clinicians should make decisions about patients’ treatment and patients should not experience undue delay at any stage of their referral, diagnosis or treatment.

It is for NHS commissioners and providers locally to work together to manage demand and plan sufficient capacity to maintain low waiting times.

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