Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce waiting times for ophthalmology patients following referral.

We are taking action to recover elective services, including for patients waiting for National Health Service ophthalmology services by working towards the targets set out in the Elective Recovery Plan and providing the NHS with record levels of staffing and funding.

We are working together with NHS England to increase diagnostic capacity as quickly as possible including the continued rollout of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) in 2023. The Government has also confirmed it is now on track to meet its target to open up to 160 CDCs by March 2025, and expects to achieve this a year early in March 2024. This includes an established CDC at Whitehouse Health Centre, to which general practitioners in Bedfordshire may be able to refer patients for key diagnostic checks, tests, and scans, including ophthalmology. The funding will also be used to increase capacity for imaging and improving digital diagnostics.

We are also transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by increasing activity through dedicated and protected surgical hubs, focusing on providing high volume low complexity surgery, such as ophthalmology. There are currently 95 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of 16 November 2023. These surgical hubs will help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care. An additional £1.5 billion of capital funding has been approved to support the expansion of existing surgical hub sites as well as the creation of more hubs in all regions.