Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to increase the use of capacity in local private hospitals to reduce NHS waiting times for surgical procedures.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029.

Independent sector providers have a role to play in supporting the NHS as trusted partners to deliver elective services by using additional capacity to tackle the backlog whilst delivering value for money, delivering more than 100,000 elective appointment and procedures every week for the NHS.

Patients have a legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. This includes the independent sector who hold contracts with integrated care boards across the country to deliver services for the NHS.

The NHS and the independent sector have established a partnership agreement, the first of its kind for 25 years, setting out how we will work together to reduce the elective care waiting list (including that for surgical procedures). This will see more NHS patients able to choose to be treated in a private hospital where there is capacity, at no cost to patients.