Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Haller index threshold for pectus excavatum surgery provided on the NHS.

In April 2023, NHS England published an interim clinical commissioning urgent policy statement on pectus excavatum surgery. The statement concluded that the Haller Index, a mathematical calculation used to measure the severity of the deformity, is adequate and serves as a key component of the eligibility criteria for surgery, alongside measures of severe physiological impact.

The policy statement is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/interim-clinical-commissioning-urgent-policy-statement-pectus-surgery/