Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include musculoskeletal services in the Getting It Right First Time programme.

The Department does not directly set the scope of the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme as it sits within NHS England’s formal structure. The scope of workstreams for the programme is directed by NHS England, in discussion with key stakeholders.

The programme undertakes clinically led reviews of specialties, including musculoskeletal (MSK) services. These reviews combine wide-ranging data and analysis with the input and expertise of senior clinicians to examine effectiveness of current services and identify opportunities for improvement.

In 2021, NHS England launched The BestMSK Health Collaborative, which aimed to recover and rebuild high-quality, high-value personalised MSK provision, integrated across primary, community and secondary care and with mental health, social services and third sector organisations. This programme closed at the end of September 2022, and key workstreams were subsumed by the GIRFT programme from October.