Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure patients are receiving the care they need.

NHS services are open for those who need them and we expect all patients to be able to access the healthcare that they need. This year, we are providing an extra £34 billion to support services.

To help to tackle backlogs in planned care, we have committed £2 billion this year, with £8 billion over the next three years. This could deliver the equivalent of around nine million more checks, scans and procedures. The delivery plan for tackling the elective care backlog will be published later this year.