Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of current waiting times for physiotherapy services in community settings in Surrey Heath constituency.

Community health services including physiotherapy services are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

We have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits for community health services in NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework. By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks.

Community physiotherapy services in Surrey Heath are provided by Ascenti, a service commissioned from the independent sector by the integrated care boards (ICBs), previously NHS Frimley ICB, now part of NHS Thames Valley ICB. Given the recent inclusion of the Surrey Heath area within the geography of the newly formed NHS Surrey and Sussex ICB, this is one of a number of contracts that is being novated to the new ICB and will be reviewed over time.

Key performance indicators for the community physiotherapy service are measured in terms of number of working days from referral to appointment, and are currently as follows for the Surrey Heath area:

• over the past 12 months, 89% of patients identified as having an “Urgent” condition were seen within ten working days; and

• over the same period, 80% of patients with a non-urgent condition were seen within 28 days.