Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide support for people who are suffering potentially life-changing health conditions as a result of a lack of access to screening and routine appointments at the start of the covid-19 outbreak.

The National Health Service will continue to deliver non-COVID-19 services as far as possible, making full use of available capacity both in the NHS and in contracted independent hospitals. Hospitals are carrying out more than a million routine appointments and operations per week, with around three times the levels of elective patients admitted to hospital than in April. All screening programmes are operational and sending invitations for appointments, with priority given to those at highest risk. The backlog of people waiting for an appointment due to the disruption to screening services caused by the first wave of COVID-19 is steadily reducing.