Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on providing additional (a) scans, (b) tests and (c) check-ups.

In February 2022 the National Health Service (NHS) published its Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care. The delivery plan commits the NHS to deliver nine million additional treatments and diagnostic procedures over the next three years and around 30 per cent more elective activity than it was doing before the pandemic by 2024-25.

2.06 million key diagnostic tests and scans were conducted in August 2022 compared with pre- pandemic activity of 1.9 million tests for August 2019.

There are currently 89 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) currently operational that offer additional diagnostic capacity for patients waiting for clinical tests such as MRIs, ultrasounds and CT scans. CDCs have delivered over two million additional tests and scans as of October 2022. Investment in up to 160 CDCs will deliver 17 million tests by March 2025, having added the capacity for nine million more per year once they are all fully operational.

There were on average 1.35 million general practice appointments per working day in September 2022, excluding Covid-19 vaccination appointments. This is an increase of 3.6% from September 2021.