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 support cardiology units in south Devon.

At the end of November 2024, the cardiology waiting list in Devon Integrated Care Board stood at 11,228 with only 56% of those waiting 18 weeks or less for treatment. The Government has committed to returning to the Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard that patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks by March 2029, with the expectation that RTT performance will increase to 65% by March 2026.

There is a concerted focus in Devon on improving cardiology services, with support from NHS England’s regional and national teams, after being identified as an area for action. As a result, the number of cardiology patients waiting over a year in Devon has fallen from 930 to 577, representing a 38% drop, in the past 18 months.

Cardiology is one of five priority specialties identified in the recently published Elective Reform Plan for significant elective reform. Reforms will include increasing specialist cardiology input earlier in patient care pathways and developing standard and efficient care pathways for common cardiology symptoms, such as palpitation. It also includes improving access to cardiac diagnostic tests, including through implementing more ‘straight to test’ pathways where the general practitioner can refer a patient directly to secondary care for a test which can reduce unnecessary outpatient appointments and improve waiting times even further for patients in south Devon and across England.

We are supporting National Health Service performance across elective and emergency care including for patients requiring urgent and elective cardiac care, with approximately £1.5 billion capital funding in total in 2025/26. Funding will provide new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners to build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures and over 1.25 million diagnostic tests as they come online, as well as new beds across the estate.