Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings of the report entitled Not Just Skin Deep, published by Allergy UK in November 2021, that more than one quarter of atopic dermatitis patients are waiting for longer than a year for a referral to specialist care, what steps she is taking to improve access to specialist dermatological care.

On 22 September 2022, we published ‘Our plan for patients’ which committed to eliminate long waiting times of over a year for elective care by March 2025, including in dermatology services.

We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out the ambition to improve access to specialist advice and guidance to general practitioners and support the management of patients awaiting specialist care.