Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about support for people with arthritis. I regret that I was unable to attend the Summer Drop-In due to my other parliamentary duties.
I can assure you that reducing waiting times for operations required by people with arthritis - including hip and knee replacement surgery - is an urgent priority for the Government. To date, £5.4 billion of funding has been committed to reduce the backlog of operations, including hip and knee replacements. In addition to this, the number of surgical hubs will be increased to deliver more hip and knee replacements.
NHS England has published a plan for the recovery of elective care in England (available here: NHS England » NHS publishes electives recovery plan to boost capacity and give power to patients) and launched the My Planned Care platform (available here: My Planned Care NHS) to ensure that people waiting for treatment have access to information and support in the meantime. It is important that local NHS bodies clearly communicate with people with arthritis on waiting lists for surgery about when they can expect to be treated, and signpost to information and support available from charities like Versus Arthritis.
The Government recognises that tackling major conditions that cause ill-health - such as arthritis - provides an opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people. That is why a Major Conditions Strategy will be developed and published over the next year to outline how outcomes in six major condition areas will be improved, including arthritis. The Department of Health and Social Care has launched its call for evidence for the Major Conditions Strategy; the consultation is now closed, and findings will be released in due course.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Sincerely,
