Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people waiting to undergo otolaryngology surgery.

Otolaryngology surgery is listed under Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) data for recording purposes. As of November 2024, the waiting list for ENT stood at 633,270. This marked a decrease of 4,380 compared to October 2024. As of November 2024, 49.2% of pathways were within 18 weeks. Not all the patients on the waiting list will have a “decision to treat”.

Tackling waiting lists, including in ENT, is a key part of our Health Mission and we will deliver an additional two million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, equivalent to 40,000 per week, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.

The Elective Reform Plan, launched as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, sets out how we will get back to the NHS Constitutional Standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by the end of this Parliament and ensure patients have the best possible experience of care.

The Elective Reform Plan commits to the following actions to reform outpatient services, including increasing uptake of Advice and Guidance and triage to reduce unnecessary demand on elective services, reducing low value follow up appointments, minimising missed appointments to maximise clinical time, and reforming clinical pathways to improve efficiency in five priority specialties, one of which is ENT.