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 reduce waiting times for gynaecological referrals in Shropshire.

We are committed to driving down waiting times in England, including for gynaecological services in Shropshire. We have wasted no time in getting to work cutting National Health Service waiting lists and ensuring people have the best possible experience during their care.

We promised change, and we’ve delivered early, with a reduction in the national waiting list between June 2024 and June 2025 of over 252,000, despite over 21 million referrals onto the list since July 2024.

We have fulfilled our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments early. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered as of June 2025.

This marks a vital First Step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, the gynaecology waiting list at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust fell by 17.9%, dropping from 4,197 patients to 3,445. During the same period, the percentage of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral rose significantly from 43.8% to 64.4%, marking an improvement of 20.6%.

The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, committed to providing quicker access for patients to common surgical hub procedures by ramping up the number of surgical hubs over the next three years.

There are currently 120 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of September 2025. This includes three surgical hubs within the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin​​ Integrated Care System. The most recent to open in the region was the Princess Royal Hospital Elective Surgical Hub, which opened in June 2024 and offers gynaecological services.

These dedicated and protected surgical hubs transform the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on providing high volume low complexity surgery, as recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

The Elective Reform Plan also commits to transform and expand diagnostic services and speed up waiting times for tests, a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the referral to treatment 18-week standard. There is currently one community diagnostic centre (CDC) in the region, the Shrewsbury Telford and Wrekin Community Diagnostic Centre in Telford. This CDC is providing additional diagnostic capacity to see patients away from hospital sites, providing key diagnostic tests such as computed tomography and ultrasound, thereby reducing unnecessary hospital visits.