Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what resources and funding he is allocating to restart ophthalmology services and provide increased ophthalmology capacity as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

As part of the third phase of the National Health Service response to COVID-19, focus is on accelerating the return of non-COVID-19 health services, including ophthalmology, whilst also preparing for winter demand pressures.

To support with this, the Government is providing an additional £3 billion to the NHS, which includes funding for continued access to the independent sector to carry out routine treatments and procedures as well as provide additional capacity for COVID-19 patients, should it be needed.

The restoration of services will also be done alongside continued vigilance in light of any further COVID-19 spikes locally and possibly nationally.