Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the challenges described in the Medical Technology Group’s Manifesto report to reduce the number of patients on the elective backlog.

The Department is taking steps to tackle waiting lists and to reduce the elective backlog through funding, innovation and technology.

The Department is providing a record amount of funding to the National Health Service (NHS), with an extra £34 billion to support health and care services. This includes £2 billion through the Elective Recovery Fund this year to help tackle the backlog that built up during the pandemic, supporting systems to drive up activity, plus £8 billion elective recovery funding over the next three years.

A further £5.9 billion of capital funding was announced in the October 2021 Spending Review to support elective recovery, diagnostics, and technology. This includes £1.5 billion towards elective recovery by expanding capacity through new surgical hubs, which will each provide new theatres for elective recovery. In addition, £2.3 billion has been announced to help increase the volume of diagnostic activity and further reduce patient waiting times, with ambitions to roll out at least 100 community diagnostic centres by 2024-25 to help clear backlogs of people waiting for clinical tests, such as MRIs, ultrasounds, and Computerised Tomography (CT) scans.

The Department has also supported the NHS to introduce virtual wards in over 90% of Integrated Care Systems, which allow patients to recover at home, whilst clinicians remotely monitor temperature, pulse and blood pressure. Through use of the £250 million Elective Recovery Technology Fund, the NHS plans to open more virtual wards, benefiting patients, increasing coverage and providing extra capacity.