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 4 July 2023 to Question 191296 on patient waiting times for MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) treatment for Essential tremor, what assessment his Department made of the adequacy of the capacity of the two MRgFUS treatment centres on reducing wait times for Essential Tremor patients.

There are two trusts in the National Health Service that support MR-Guided Focussed Ultrasound (MRgFUS) treatment for essential tremor. These are Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust.

Imperial NHS Trust has 12 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners listed within the 2021-22 National Imaging Data Collection. With the addition of new Community Diagnostic Centres across the trust’s network, capacity for MRI will be increased further which should provide support for a reduction in waiting times.

The Walton Centre has five MRI scanners listed within the 2021-22 National Imaging Data Collection.

With this number of MRI scanners, NHS England assesses that there will be sufficient MRI capacity to deliver MRgFUS treatment for local Essential Tremor patients. The Department continues to work with NHS England to support systems to maximise the utilisation of these MRI scanners which should in turn support a reduction in waiting times for services.