Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether continence services which have been reduced as a result of the covid-19 outbreak are planned to be reinstated.
Trusts, working with general practitioner practices, have been asked to ensure that every patient whose planned care has been disrupted by COVID-19 receives clear communication about how they will be looked after, and who to contact if their clinical circumstances change.
The focus is on accelerating the return of non-COVID-19 health services to near-normal levels, including making full use of available capacity between now and winter, whilst also preparing for winter demand pressures. This will be done alongside continued vigilance against further COVID-19 spikes locally and possibly nationally.
The National Bladder and Bowel Health Project are currently supporting a study to establish the impact of COVID-19 on continence services. There are no plans for ringfenced funding for continence services.