Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department and NHS England are taking to ensure that best practice set out by the Getting It Right First Time programme in areas including orthopaedics are adopted throughout the NHS.

The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is now embedded within NHS England and NHS Improvement’s programmes to improve quality and productivity, ensuring best practice is adopted throughout the National Health Service. GIRFT practices are incorporated into the Pathway Redesign Programme and fast track surgical hubs, which are tackling waiting lists in high volume, low acuity specialties such as orthopaedics by increasing surgical productivity across the NHS.

GIRFT metrics are also used in the model hospital system, which is a digital tool that provides an overview of a trust’s opportunities to enhance productivity. This enables peers to benchmark directly against one another and identify where improved practices can be adopted across the NHS.