Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Coyle Excerpts

Tuesday 6th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

I thank the shadow Minister for her question. My colleague the Minister for Social Care is hosting an event today for carers, and £300 million for carers in the better care fund has also been released. I am a carer for my dad, who thankfully is well and spritely, so I understand the pressures of this. Recently, I met carers from Kinship; often they are grandparents, and older aunts and uncles, who look after young children. Work is going on between us and the Department for Education on how we can better support kinship carers, who do fantastic work in looking after young children. We fully recognise the issue, and the Social Care Minister is not just providing funding, but meeting those carers to see how we can better support them.

[Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to improve the health of patients with arthritis awaiting NHS treatment.

[The Minister for Social Care (Helen Whately)]

NHS England has drawn on the work of Versus Arthritis, including its joint replacement support package, in the resources it provides to support people waiting for hip and knee replacements. Alongside that, we know that what people really want is faster treatment. That is why we are working so hard to cut waiting lists, which is one of the Prime Minister’s five key priorities.

[Neil Coyle]

I am glad that the Minister referenced Versus Arthritis, because it does great work, but it has significant concerns about the waits for treatment for people living with arthritis. While recognising the efforts of hard-working NHS staff, there are more than 800,000 people in England waiting for trauma and orthopaedic treatment, including more than 5,500 Southwark constituents waiting for treatment at Guy’s and St Tommy’s hospitals. Will the Minister meet staff from Versus Arthritis specifically to discuss how to better support people waiting for those treatments?

[Helen Whately]

As the hon. Member said, Versus Arthritis is doing really important work not only supporting people with arthritis while they wait for treatment, but better preparing them for surgery. What is really important, as I said a moment ago, is reducing those waits and the work that we are doing on that. We have already virtually eliminated two-year waits, and 18-month waits have been reduced by more than 90%, which is quite a contrast, we know, to the performance of the Labour-run NHS in Wales. I encourage Versus Arthritis to contribute to our call for evidence on the major conditions strategy where we are looking at what more we can do to support people with, among other things, muscular skeletal conditions.