Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of outsourcing NHS biopsy contracts on waiting times for results; and what discussions he has had with representatives of outsourced providers on reducing waiting times for test results.

Information on the average time for National Health Service biopsy results is not collected in the format requested. The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out for how the NHS will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including biopsy services. The Department has committed £2.3 billion to increase the volume of diagnostic activity, including the launch of up to 160 community diagnostic centres (CDC) by 2024/25 to increase capacity for clinical checks, including simple biopsies. Since July 2021, CDCs have delivered more than one million additional checks. This funding will also support the digitisation of cell pathology services in the NHS to accelerate turnaround times in testing and improve digital infrastructure.

No specific assessment of the effect of outsourcing NHS biopsy contracts or current waiting times at Leighton Hospital has been made and there are no plans to have such discussions with providers. Decisions to outsource histology reporting are taken by the clinical leadership of the local pathology network or laboratory.