Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the statement by the Secretary of State for Health on 10 August that any patient who needs cataract surgery should get it without delay, what is their assessment of the impact on cataract surgery waiting times and local capacity to deliver cataract treatment of a higher priority being afforded to such treatment.

Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning cataract surgery for their local populations. Patients have the right to start consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks of referral for non-urgent conditions, or alternatively have the right to ask for an alternative provider who can see them sooner. All patients should be treated without unnecessary delay and according to their clinical priority.

Where National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance does not exist on a particular treatment, it is for local National Health Service commissioners to make funding decisions based on an assessment of the available evidence and on the basis of an individual patient’s clinical circumstances. However, in light of concerns about lengthy waits for treatment and unacceptable variations in care, the Secretary of State has asked NICE to bring forward its guidance on cataracts from 2018 to 2017. This will provide NHS commissioners with evidence based guidance from NICE and ensure patients have access to the most effective treatment as early as possible.

The Government has not made an assessment of the effect of hospital-initiated postponement of cataract surgery on patients’ sight or of the impact of innovative technologies; we anticipate that these aspects will be considered by NICE in their assessment.