Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in levels of anaesthetic workforce availability on elective surgery waiting times.

No specific recent assessment has been made by the Department on the impact of the levels of the anaesthetic workforce’s availability on elective surgery waiting times. Local providers are best placed to make decisions on workforce capacity to reflect local service demand and circumstances.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.