Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193607 on Health Services: Wirral South, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for treatment on the Wirral.

The Government has committed more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity across England including the Wirral. This is supported further by £5.9 billion investment in capital for new beds, equipment, and technology.

In July 2022 we met our target to virtually eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures, and significantly reduced the number of patients waiting 18 months or more by April 2023 by over 91% from the peak in September 2021. We have now moved our focus to cutting waits of 65 weeks or more to as near zero as possible by March 2024; this includes patients waiting for treatment in the Wirral. Capacity is being sought across the National Health Service and the independent sector locally, regionally and across the country to support efforts in hitting this target.

From October 2023, all patients waiting over 40 weeks where a decision to treat a patient has been made but the patient does not have a date for their treatment will be able to initiate a request to transfer to another provider and receive treatment more quickly via the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System.