Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of how much additional surgical and diagnostic capacity independent sector healthcare organisations are able to make available to NHS patients over the remainder of 2016-17; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Philip Dunne

No assessment has been made. Decisions about whether to use independent sector capacity are generally made at local level. Use of the independent sector will depend on a range of factors including the needs of individual local health systems, patient choice and availability of suitable independent sector capacity.