Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral contribution of 8 February, Official Report, column 805, on the NHS’s delivery plan for tackling the covid-19 backlog of elective care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of prioritising specialities with longer waiting lists; and what plans his Department has to tackle the backlog of elective care for gynaecology.

The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ outlines how the National Health Service will reduce waiting times across all elective services including gynaecology and menstrual health. While the plan does not prioritise specialties, it commits to eradicate all waiting times of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025, except in the case of patient choice. We plan that by July 2022, no one will wait longer than two years, we aim to eliminate waiting times of over 18 months by April 2023 and over 65 weeks by March 2024. The plan also recognises that a small number of highly specialised areas may need tailored plans to tackle the backlog.

The plan commits to investing in the physical separation of routine care to protect planned services from emergency care pressures where possible. At least 100 community diagnostic centres will be available by March 2025, supplying additional tests including many for gynaecological pathways. We are increasing capacity for gynaecological surgery to tackle waiting lists through the surgical hub and High Volume Low Complexity programme. Some gynaecological services, such as menstrual health services, are predominantly provided by general practitioners (GPs) which remained open. We have invested £520 million to improve access and expand GP capacity during the pandemic. This is in addition to £1.5 billion announced in 2020 to create an additional 50 million GP appointments by 2024 by increasing and diversifying the workforce.