Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the level of variation in access to treatment for patients with inflammatory skin conditions in England.

While the Department has not made any formal assessment, NHS England is working to ensure fair and equitable access to treatment for elective services in England, including for patients with inflammatory skin conditions.

NHS England’s outpatient recovery and transformation programme has introduced a number of initiatives, such as the virtual teledermatology two-week wait pathway, as well as patient-initiated follow-up and remote consultations, all of which provide opportunities to reduce the number of patients attending face-to-face appointments. This means capacity can be released for patients that need to be seen face-to-face, such as those with extensive inflammatory skin disease.

In addition, a document focusing on equity of access has recently been published and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/ensuring-equity-of-access-to-care-when-redesigning-dermatology-pathways/