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 ensure that plans to support the recovery of the NHS after the covid-19 outbreak include service provision for people with arthritis.

Guidance has been issued to local National Health Service providers and commissioning trusts on the restart of non-COVID-19 services, including arthritis, starting with the most clinically urgent cases and ensuring this is done safely with appropriate infection control. The approach is being flexed at local level according to capacity and demand in different parts of the country, but the reset will be gradual.