Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department plans to triage patients waiting for elective surgeries.

The ‘Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care’ was published on 8 February 2022. The plan sets out a clear vision for how the National Health Service (NHS) will recover and expand elective services, including surgeries, over the next three years.

The NHS will triage patients waiting for elective care, including surgeries, through three key stages. Firstly, through clinical prioritisation, ensuring the order in which patients are seen reflects clinical judgement on need. Secondly, by managing long waits: targeting support to reduce the number of people waiting a long time. Thirdly, increasing the number of cancer referrals, ensuring those patients who have not yet presented to services are included. These considerations are critical in improving overall health outcomes, underpinned by new investment and new technology.

To support this, the plan refers to national and local policies on waiting list management which are currently being reviewed and the original prioritisation frameworks amended.

Systems will be expected to analyse their waiting list data by relevant characteristics, including age, deprivation and ethnicity, and by specialty.

Patients who have been waiting 18 months or longer will now be re-reviewed every three months, as a minimum, until they receive treatment or get discharged. This will be subject to ongoing review as numbers of patients waiting over two years reduce.

Across the elective recovery programme, the NHS aims to ensure prioritisation is consistent, to deliver the best outcomes for patients on waiting lists.