Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase capacity for (a) new and (b) follow-up appointments in ophthalmology clinics.

Alistair Burt

The need for ophthalmology outpatient clinics will be determined locally by clinical commissioning groups who will then commission the care, normally from National Health Service trusts.

The most recent NHS workforce statistics for trusts and clinical commissioning groups, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre on 22 June 2016, shows that since May 2010, there are now 264 more doctors with a specialty of ophthalmology; this includes a 27% increase in the number of consultants.