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 potential merits of providing funding for people to access treatment abroad that is not available on the NHS.

We have no current plans to make an assessment. However, commissioners may choose to do this for individuals in exceptional circumstances. The reciprocal healthcare agreements that the United Kingdom has with the EU and Switzerland supports planned treatment abroad, when it would normally be available on the NHS, through the “S2 scheme”. Individuals must meet certain other eligibility criteria, such as experiencing undue delay when waiting for treatment.