Health Services: Carers

(asked on 25th January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the average waiting time for NHS (a) assessments and (b) treatments for unpaid carers.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 31st January 2023

The NHS has published a delivery plan setting out a clear vision for how the NHS will recover and expand elective services over the next three years.

To support this recovery, the government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022-23 to 2024-25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available to systems last financial year (2021/2022), to help drive up and protect elective activity. Taken together, this funding could deliver the equivalent of around nine million more checks and procedures, making it easier to get an appointment and increasing flexibility for patients, including unpaid carers.

Prioritisation for which patients are seen first is based on clinical decision making. 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 targeting support to reduce the number of people waiting the longest. Thirdly, increasing the number of cancer referrals.

Unpaid carers play a vital role in our communities, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude.

Reticulating Splines