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 reduce waiting times for (a) endoscopies and (b) other bowel cancer diagnostic tests.

£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 21 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services, including a number delivering endoscopy services. The remainder will increase diagnostic capacity, including endoscopy services, and other productivity improvements including digital transformation.

Direct Spending Review 21 investment in Endoscopy capacity has resulted in a net additional 31 endoscopy rooms in 2022/23, of which five were in CDCs. To date, NHS England have also approved additional investment, expected to deliver a further 25 net endoscopy rooms, of which five are to be in CDCs.

Alongside investment in physical capacity, several schemes are already underway to grow the endoscopy workforce including international recruitment of Clinical Fellows to enable back-fill for gastroenterology trainees to complete training.