Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of the use of minimally invasive procedures during the covid-19 outbreak on (a) hospital capacity (b) patient outcomes in hospitals in England.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic all non-essential elective surgery was postponed, including minimally invasive procedures. The use of minimally invasive techniques was mooted as a potential solution to operating in a COVID-19 environment and, where clinically appropriate, this technique was used once non-urgent procedures resumed. As COVID-19 infection control measures have been developed, the need for minimally invasive techniques has receded and the use of these has now returned to normal levels.