Musculoskeletal Disorders: Health Services

(asked on 14th July 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help support people living with a musculoskeletal condition.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 19th July 2023

NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time programme has a specific workstream on musculoskeletal health. It is designed to improve the treatment and care of patients with musculoskeletal conditions through in-depth review of services, benchmarking, and presenting a data-driven evidence base to support change.

The primary care delivery plan is supporting people to self-refer for selected community musculoskeletal services, and we estimate that up to 50% more patients could be self-referring by March 2024, which will reduce waiting times for patients with arthritis.

The Government also plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to step up elective activity and transform elective services. This funding could deliver the equivalent of around nine million more checks, scans and procedures, and will mean the National Health Service in England can aim to deliver around 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 than it did before the pandemic.

The Major Conditions Strategy is an opportunity to tackle musculoskeletal conditions to improve outcomes for patients. The strategy will set out a clear vision for musculoskeletal conditions, covering treatment and prevention.

Reticulating Splines