April 2022
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about support for people with arthritis who are waiting for hip and knee replacement surgery.
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 begin reducing the backlog of operations. In addition to this, the number of surgical hubs will be increased to deliver more hip and knee replacements in a COVID-secure environment.
NHS England and Improvement has published a plan for the recovery of elective care in England, and launched the My Planned Care platform to ensure that people waiting for treatment have access to information and support in the meantime.
It is particularly 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.
To this end, I am aware that my colleague Ed Argar MP (Minister for Health) recently met with Versus Arthritis to discuss their ideas around the recovery of elective treatment and to better understand the issues faced by people with arthritis on waiting lists.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Jonathan Lord
Jonathan Lord MP
Member of Parliament for Woking