Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce waiting times for treatment for chronic heart disease.
Patients in England have a right to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-urgent conditions.
Whilst these waiting times are low and stable, some patients have not been starting their treatment as quickly as we would like. As a result, £250 million of additional funding has been provided to fund additional elective care treatments in 2014-15. This has not been directed towards any specific disease group but has been used by the National Health Service to prioritise and treat those patients waiting the longest.