Hospitals: Waiting Lists

(asked on 18th August 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of NHS reforms on tackling the backlog of elective care patients requiring urgent treatment and/or operations that have been delayed as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and what the timeframe is for clearing the backlog for routine hospital treatment.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 6th September 2021

The reforms in the Health and Care Bill will support the National Health Service (NHS) to respond to challenges, both now and in the future, to tackle key issues such as patient waiting times.

The Department is unable to set a decisive timeframe for clearing the backlog for routine hospital treatment due to uncertainty around how many patients who did not seek treatment as a result of the pandemic will be coming forward and when.

The Department continues to support the NHS to step up activity as much as possible and tackle the backlog as a priority, with a particular focus on those who have been waiting the longest.

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