Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of the new surgical hubs will be focused solely on orthopaedic procedures.

There are no plans for any of the new hubs to focus solely on orthopaedic procedures, but five of the new surgical hubs will focus on orthopaedics procedures in addition to other specialties.

The Elective Reform Plan committed to providing quicker access for patients to common surgical procedures by opening 14 new and three expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, and ramping up the number of hubs over the next three years, so more operations can be carried out. They focus on driving improvements in six high volume specialties: ophthalmology; general surgery; trauma and orthopaedics, which includes spinal surgery; gynaecology; ear, nose and throat; and urology.