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 NHS waiting times for (a) hip and (b) knee operations.

Clinical commissioning groups are putting in place a number of initiatives to better manage the increasing demand for elective services, including those related to hips and knees. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out a number of other ways in which the National Health Service will look to reduce avoidable demand and improve waiting times for all elective care services. This includes a commitment that any patient who has been waiting for more than six months will be reviewed and given the option of faster treatment at an alternative provider.

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