Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that people awaiting major surgery do not experience severe delays as a result of hospitals treating an influx of covid-19 patients.

As hospitals treat COVID-19 patients, trusts continue to offer as many routine services as they can to restore services to the previous levels. To keep operations going, services are being redesigned and priority is given to patients based on clinical urgency and those who have been waiting the longest. Interruptions to routine services should only occur when they are absolutely unavoidable and these decisions are taken locally based on operational needs. In addition, the Nightingale hospitals continue to support services by offering extra capacity and bed numbers, which are being utilised upon the decision of local clinicians when needed.