Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce hip replacement waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.
We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.
Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a hip replacement.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.
We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.
Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to renew the Farm Facilitation Fund beyond March 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recognise the importance of farmer and land manager collaboration. In future years we want to make it easier for farmers to build partnerships and secure the advice and support they need to deliver on a range of priorities in their local area.
That’s why the Agricultural Transition Plan Update, published in January 2024, committed to the development of an expanded and improved facilitation fund.
To support this change, we are not opening further rounds of the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund. We are still funding existing agreements.
Ahead of the Spending Review, we are testing how we develop a more flexible approach to supporting farmer networks and partnerships. We will learn from the evaluation of the Facilitation Fund, which proves the benefits of collaboration but also shows that we need to improve the design, so it is less burdensome for participants, and we can increase uptake.