Orthopaedics: Waiting Lists
(asked on 21st May 2026) - View Source
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 tackle elective care waiting times, including joint replacement surgery, in Eastleigh constituency; what assessment his Department has made of the likelihood of the trauma and orthopaedic waiting list meeting the 18-week treatment target set out in the Elective Reform Plan, and what steps his Department is taking to increase access to community musculoskeletal and physiotherapy services to help reduce demand for trauma and orthopaedic referrals, and improve patient outcomes.
We are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, across all specialties, including trauma and orthopaedics. In March 2026, we hit our first interim target of 65% performance against that standard.
In the last year, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the provider located in the Eastleigh constituency, has seen a 5.4% increase in the proportion of waits under 18 weeks and a 6.9% increase in trauma and orthopaedics, the specialism that covers joint replacement surgery.
The Department is taking a range of steps to reduce waiting times for surgery, including joint replacement surgery. There are currently 125 surgical hubs operational across England, and we are committed to expanding the number of hubs over the next three years to increase surgical capacity and deliver faster access to common procedures. In addition, the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is supporting improvements by publishing detailed guidance for hip and knee replacements in June 2023 and leading a community musculoskeletal (MSK) programme to support improvements in the early stages of MSK pathways, so that only those who require surgery are referred into secondary care. Further information on the GIRFT programme is available at the following link: