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 (a) reduce joint replacement waiting times within the NHS for people with arthritis and (b) improve support for people with arthritis who are waiting for joint replacement surgery.

We are prioritising joint replacement surgery through the High Volume Low Complexity programme, which focuses on improving clinical pathways and quality of care. The programme adopts best clinical and operational practice and aims to establish fast-track surgical hubs for high volume elective procedures such as hip and knee joint replacements, reducing waiting times in the process. Additional capacity for surgery is also being made available through a £1.5 billion investment in elective services, such as new surgical hubs and increased bed capacity, including for joint replacement surgery.

The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, aims to simplify National Health Service pathways for patients and their carers. The pathway improvement programme will focus the most common types of care, including musculoskeletal (MSK) services. NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently working with Versus Arthritis on the development of new MSK pathways and of the MSK strategy. This pain management, personalised care and supporting patients waiting and preparing for surgery. Through collaboration with the British Orthopaedic Association, the British Society for Rheumatology, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance and Versus Arthritis, NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed self-management resources for patients.