Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for (a) NHS treatment in A&E, (b) routine operations, and (c) cancer care.

The Long Term Plan, launched by the National Health Service on 7 January 2018, will transform patient care and make sure every penny of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely. This is supported by the Government’s investment of £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24. The additional funding will allow the NHS to get back on the path to delivering core performance standards. More than that, it will also drive the reforms that deliver a better and more sustainable NHS with improved care for patients.

In addition, NHS England’s ‘Operational and Planning Guidance for 2019/20’ sets out deliverables against key performance areas and the Government has charged the NHS to deliver these actions set– in full – as key steps towards fully recovering performance against core access standards.

The Government has also supported the NHS with an additional £1.6 billion for 2018/19 to improve emergency and elective performance. In addition, more than £420 million has been provided specifically for this winter.