Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how (1) surgeries, (2) stroke treatments, (3) cancer detections, and (4) admissions for chemotherapy, have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic urgent services, such as cancer treatment, urgent operations and stroke care have remained open. Even at the peak of demand, hospitals were still able to look after two non-COVID-19 inpatients for everyone COVID-19 inpatient.

The following table shows the total number of completed admitted pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Stroke Sentinel National Audit Programme data shows that during the COVID-19 pandemic, improvements were seen in access to stroke units and in the time taken for brain scanning and acute assessments by a stroke specialist. There was a decrease in stroke admissions of 13% during March-May 2020. Seven-day crude mortality data for March-June 2020 shows that there is an overall adjusted risk of mortality of 12% which is consistent with the case mix adjusted 30-day mortality data average of 12% between 2016-2019.

The number of people starting treatment for cancer in August was 78% of the same month last year, having recovered from a low of 63% in May. The majority of people who have not been diagnosed are assessed as being those who did not come forward for checks.

Chemotherapy treatments are largely delivered on a day case or outpatient basis and only a small proportion would normally be delivered in an inpatient setting. Between March and August 2020, there were around 5,300 chemotherapy admissions for inpatient treatment. This is lower than in the same period in 2019, when around 9,000 admissions were recorded. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance NG161, published in April 2020 to support clinicians in the management of patients requiring systemic treatment through the pandemic, provided advice on alternative chemotherapy treatment approaches to reduce the risk of infection to patients and avoid unnecessary admissions and visits to hospital where possible.