Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) data and (b) metrics used in musculoskeletal services.

Data is fundamental to the effective delivery of health services, underpinning service improvement and ultimately improving outcomes for patients.

Musculoskeletal (MSK) data for secondary care, including orthopaedics, spinal services, paediatric orthopaedics, and adult and paediatric rheumatology are regularly reviewed by the NHS England Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) specialty programmes in NHS England, and work is undertaken with hospitals and within NHS England to make improvements where they are identified.

The Joint Work and Health Directorate is also funding GIRFT to deliver the MSK Community Delivery Programme, which aims to improve MSK community services, reduce waiting lists, improve outcomes, and address health-related barriers to work.

The programme has a focus on strengthening MSK leadership, improving data recording and submission, supporting digitally enabled services, and using data and benchmarking to drive performance improvement.