Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of average waiting times for joint replacement surgery in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to (i) clear backlogs and (ii) reduce average waiting times for joint replacement surgery in those areas.

No specific estimate has been made of waiting times in Coventry and the West Midlands as this information is not collected at city or sub-region level. As of April 2022, the median average waiting time for trauma and orthopaedic treatment across England, which includes joint replacement surgery, was 14.7 weeks. This is a reduction of approximately 39% compared to August 2020.

We are providing 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, to increase activity in elective services. This could deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million checks, scans and procedures, including for patients awaiting joint replacements.