Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the ophthalmology waiting list, including through expanding the use of optometry-led diagnostic and treatment pathways.

While ophthalmology waiting lists have increased since July 2024, waiting times for these services have improved. 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 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.

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.

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.