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 tackle inequalities in (a) waiting times and (b) access to treatment for cardiovascular disease patients in East England.

Patients have been let down for too long whilst they wait for the care they need, including patients awaiting cardiology care. The Government has committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT), a standard which has not been met for almost a decade. As a first step, we have set a national target that 65% of patients wait 18 weeks or less by March 2026.

The Elective Reform Plan commits to reforming elective care equitably and inclusively for all adults, children, and young people. The plan sets out the expectations for ICBs and providers to set a clear local vision for how health inequalities will be reduced as part of elective care reform, and to ensure interventions are in place to reduce disparities for groups who face additional waiting list challenges. To support this work, we have committed to improving the submission and quality of demographics data to increase understanding and insight into health inequalities.

Cardiology is one of five priority specialties identified for significant elective reform in the Elective Reform Plan. Reforms include increasing specialist cardiology input earlier in patient care pathways, and improving access to cardiac diagnostic tests. These improvements to common cardiology pathways help standardise patient care, reduce inequalities, and improve access to care, especially in the early stages of pathways, for patients across England.

In the East of England, performance against the 18-week RTT standard for cardiology is 58.1%, compared to 60.9% for cardiology nationally. Regionally, NHS England’s East of England Cardiac Network team is taking focussed action to reduce RTT waiting times, improve access to cardiac diagnostics such as echo and computed tomography coronary angiography, and ensure patients can readily access specialist services as required, such as the Inherited Cardiac Conditions services across the Royal Papworth Hospital and Norfolk, and the Norwich University Hospital.