Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce NHS waiting times in (a) Oxfordshire and (b) England.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is implementing its Integrated Improvement Plan to reduce waiting times. Part of the focus is to manage demand through the use of one stop clinics, improving pathways to prevent 52+ week waits, optimising care in cancer services, improving access to diagnostic services, increasing theatre productivity and the use of outsourcing to increase capacity.

NHS England’s ‘Operational and Planning Guidance for 2019/20’ sets out deliverables against key performance areas and the Government expects the National Health Service to deliver these actions set – in full – as key steps towards fully recovering performance against core access standards.

In addition, the Long Term Plan, launched by the NHS on 7 January 2018, will transform patient care and make sure every penny of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely. This is supported by the Government’s investment of £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24. Under the Long Term Plan, the local NHS is being allocated sufficient funds over the next five years to grow the amount of planned surgery year on year, to cut long waits, and reduce the waiting list. The phasing of this will be determined annually through the planning guidance process.