Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role the independent sector can play in supporting the development of NHS Online.

NHS Online, launching in 2027, will be a publicly owned National Health Service organisation, giving patients on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will offer the latest innovations in digital healthcare, nationally scaled for the benefit of patients in every part of the country, helping to reduce patient waiting times through delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years.

The Government recognises the role independent sector providers have in supporting the NHS as trusted partners to recover elective services by using additional capacity to tackle the backlog whilst delivering value for money.

The NHS Online programme is actively engaging with both NHS organisations and the independent sector, including through representative bodies such as the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, to support the development of NHS Online.