Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to retain the 18-week referral-to-treatment target for joint replacement surgery; what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the health of patients with (a) arthritis and (b) other conditions of changing the 18-week target; and if he will make a statement.

A maximum waiting time of 18 weeks from referral to elective treatment, including for joint replacement surgery, is the existing National Health Service access standard.

Data on waiting times for joint replacement surgery is already published on a monthly basis by NHS England and NHS Improvement. A detailed breakdown of the waiting times for different specialities are available on the NHS website.

A clinically-led review of NHS access standards is ongoing. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s final recommendations to the Government are due by the Spring and the Government will carefully consider these recommendations.

The Government is providing an additional £33.9 billion a year by 2023/24 to support measures set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. Additionally, a reform of outpatient services is underway that will reduce the need for patients to attend unnecessary face to face appointments, saving patients time and freeing up medical and nursing time.

This funding increase and clinical reform will reduce the demand on services while also growing capacity, thereby allowing increasing amounts of planned surgical activity. This in turn will decrease the waiting list and help get the NHS back on track to delivering performance standards.