Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Health on 27 October 2021 (59085), what are the (1) aims, and (2) scope, of the Pathway Redesign Programme.

The Pathway Redesign Programme aims to improve services and patient health outcomes and create additional capacity for elective care. This will release appointment times which can be used for urgent and new referrals and reduce waiting lists.

The programme will focus on redesigning some of the highest volume care pathways, such as optical care, cardiac and musculoskeletal services. Regional teams and integrated care systems will standardise ways of delivering care and adopt best practice, working with the Getting It Right First Time programmes and reduce any unwarranted variation.