Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the backlog in neurology appointments in Greater Manchester.

Cutting the National Health Service waiting lists, including for neurology, is one of the Government’s top priorities. To facilitate this across elective services, we are increasing activity, with plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, and expanding capacity though creating a new network of community diagnostic centres. We are managing demand through specialised advice in primary care and giving patients more control over where they receive their care, and we are increasing productivity; through transforming outpatient services and developing new surgical hubs to increase theatre productivity, funded by part of £1.5 billion and working actively with trusts to support and challenge on their performance.

The Northern Care Alliance is the main provider for neurology care across Greater Manchester with a small number of patients under the care of Manchester University Foundation Trust for children and young people, and Bolton NHS Foundation Trust for long term neurology conditions service provided by NCA.

These trusts are currently working hard on validating waiting lists and keeping in regular contact with all waiting patients to ensure they are informed and supported while they wait for care. There has been a significant reduction in long waiting patient numbers that has been driven through several initiatives, including some small transfers of patients to other providers, but mainly through introducing external neurologists to see patients within the service at weekends and through their own clinical team doing additional work at the weekend.