Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish ophthalmology waiting times in order to address regional variations in and inconsistent commissioning of sight-saving treatment.

This Government is committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment across all specialties, including in ophthalmology services. As of May 2026, the proportion of waits below 18 weeks has increased from 65.7% in July 2024 to 74.1% in May 2026, an 8.4 percentage point improvement. This data is published on the NHS.UK website.

We are taking specific steps to improve services like ophthalmology. NHS England accelerator pilots have demonstrated that improved IT connectivity and a single point of access can significantly speed up eye care referrals and support more patients to be managed in the community, in line with the ambitions in the 10-Year Health Plan.

In May 2026, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme released a best practice guidance for the care of patients with glaucoma, and this will be the first in a series of best practice documents for ophthalmology conditions. The aim of this series is to standardise the patient pathways in use across England in line with best practice, which will enable the most complex and most at risk to be seen more quickly by specialist ophthalmology teams.

Specific measures to address regional variations and inconsistent commissioning in ophthalmology include the Public Health Outcomes Framework eye health indicator, which continues to track the rate of sight loss for age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. This information is available to commissioners and can be used to drive improved local outcomes and interventions. In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended a number of medicines for eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration. Integrated care boards are legally required to fund NICE-recommended medicines in line with NICE’s recommendations.

From next year, we are also introducing NHS Online, which will help reduce patient waiting times across England by giving people on glaucoma pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. NHS Online will deliver the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointment and assessments in its first three years across all specialities. We are also committed to expanding the number of surgical hubs, which provide dedicated and protected elective capacity to drive improvement in six specialities, including ophthalmology.