Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Deferred
Paragraph: 98
Prioritise longest elective surgery waiting lists and provide financial support for women's travel
Conclusion
Measures to reduce waiting lists for elective surgery should prioritise areas where waiting lists are longest and disparities greatest. The NHS should provide financial support to women to allow them to travel further to access care earlier.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response did not address the recommendation to prioritise waiting list reduction or provide financial support for women to travel for earlier care. Instead, it focused on the training and curricula of medical professionals, noting that women's health is included in GMC, RCGP, and RCOG training standards.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
98
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
Cutting waiting lists, including for gynaecology, is an important part of our health mission to build an NHS fit for the future and a top priority for this government. NHS England’s plan on reforming elective care for patients (linked in ‘Introduction’ above) sets out how the NHS will reform elective care services and meet the 18-week referral-to-treatment standard by March 2029. Significant measures in the plan include: empowering patients by: giving them more choice and control establishing the standards that they can expect to make their experience of planned NHS care as smooth, supportive and convenient as possible reforming delivery by working more productively, consistently - and, in many cases, differently - to deliver more elective care. For example, piloting direct-to-test gynaecology pathways in CDCs , such as for patients with post-menopausal bleeding delivering care in the right place to make sure patients receive their care from skilled healthcare professionals in the right setting - for example, through women’s health hubs aligning funding, performance oversight and delivery standards, with: clear responsibilities and incentives for reform robust and regular oversight of performance clear expectations for how elective care will be delivered at a local level actions to tackle health inequalities such as a review of existing national initiatives with the aim of developing them and increasing their uptake - for example, by improving signposting to and accessibility of local patient transport services for patients Additionally, the NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is a clinical improvement programme designed to improve the treatment and care of patients through: reviews of services benchmarking developing an evidence base to support change Gynaecology is one of the 6 high-volume low-complexity specialties being prioritised through the GIRFT programme. In relation to travel costs, patients may be eligible for either local patient transport services or to reclaim costs through the existing NHS Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme - the scheme allows eligible patients to claim a refund for reasonable travel costs.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗