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 tackle the backlog in ophthalmology appointments resulting from the cancellation of routine eye care appointments during the covid-19 outbreak.

The National Outpatient Transformation Programme team at NHS England has been working closely with national partners, including the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, the College of Optometry and the Royal National Institute of Blind People, to develop clinical guidance for hospital eye services which will support the restoration of services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes an eye care roadmap for 2020/21, with supporting COVID-19 sub-specialty pathways and toolkits, which has been shared nationally.

Separately, NHSX are currently leading on the launch of a dynamic purchasing system, which will support local systems to procure a digital connectivity solution to further enhance the ability for primary and secondary care services to support integrated patient care, and avoid a significant number of unnecessary referrals being made into hospital eye services.