Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many procedures for glaucoma were undertaken alongside cataract treatment in the last year; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of that combined treatment.

There were 2,742 National Health Service finished consultant episodes in 2017/18 in England, where a procedure for treating cataract and glaucoma occurred at the same time. This is not a count of patients, given patients may have more than one episode of care during the same period.

No assessment has been made by the Department of the effectiveness of combining cataract and glaucoma treatment. Decisions on whether to recommend concomitant treatment are for individual clinicians’ taking into account individual clinical circumstances, the patient’s wishes and the best available evidence.