Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether routine treatment will be stopped during the covid-19 outbreak.

National Health Service organisations were advised, in a letter to them from NHS England and NHS Improvement dated 17 March, that they should assume to need to postpone all non-urgent elective operations from 15 April at the latest, for a period of at least three months. NHS trusts also have full local discretion to wind down elective activity over the next 30 days as they see best, to free up staff for refresher training, beds for COVID-19 patients, and theatres/recovery facilities for adaptation work. Emergency admissions, cancer treatment and other clinically urgent care should continue unaffected.