Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure greater cohesion and integration between clinical commissioning groups to better enable the transfer of patients to their local hospital to receive treatment or an MRI test and so prevent unnecessary travel costs for the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Determining the location of services is a matter for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), based on their clinical expertise and the providers in their local health economy.

National Health Service organisations, including providers and CCGs, are in the process of coming together to develop Sustainability and Transformation Plans across 44 footprints. They are considering how best to provide healthcare to people in the right setting. In doing this, they will wish to consider patient travel times.