Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of surgical hubs on waiting times for (a) trauma and (b) orthopaedic treatment.

No formal assessment has been made on the impact of surgical hubs on waiting times for trauma and orthopaedic treatment.

Surgical hubs enable trusts to increase resilience for elective procedures and minimise cancellations during periods of high pressure. This can reduce uncertainty for patients around last-minute cancellations, maximise the use of available capacity, and helps to reduce waiting times. In the Budget, we committed additional funding to set up new surgical hubs to help with our commitment to get the waiting lists down.