Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System plans to take to increase capacity levels for endoscopy procedures for patients in Buckingham constituency.

£2.3 billion was awarded at the 2021 Spending Review to transform diagnostic services over the next three years to increase diagnostic capacity, including for endoscopy services. This funding will also increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, including a number delivering endoscopy services.

In 2022/23, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System (ICS) spent a total of £24,790,510 on all diagnostic services. Of this, £5,179,888 (21%), was spent on diagnostic endoscopy procedures at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

Cutting National Health Service waiting lists, including for endoscopy services, is one of the Government’s top priorities. This is a shared ambition amongst ICSs, including Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICS. Priorities are set locally through joint strategic needs assessments as part of joint forward plans across the ICS and partnering NHS trusts.

In October 2021, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICS opened West Berkshire Community Hospital CDC. West Berkshire Community Hospital CDC has since delivered 4,492 additional endoscopy tests closer to people’s homes, supporting earlier access to endoscopy procedures. Additional endoscopy capacity from new CDCs within the ICS will also start to come onstream later this year. This includes North Bedfordshire CDC (Whitehouse Health Centre), which will be located in the Buckingham constituency. Endoscopy services at these CDCs may be offered to the Buckingham population where convenient, to improve their access to diagnostic care.

The Government has not made a recent assessment of the barriers to reducing endoscopy waiting lists in the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICS. It is the responsibility of individual ICSs to work with NHS England to understand local barriers to delivering the required diagnostics services, including endoscopy, and to implement appropriate waiting list solutions based on local need.