Written question asked by Lord Kamall (Conservative) on Monday, 20 April 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 5 May 2026. It was answered by Baroness Merron (Labour) on Wednesday, 29 April 2026 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Surgery: Robotics
- Question
-
To ask His Majesty's Government how many inpatient procedures have been completed in each month from 2024 to 2026; what assessment they have made of the contribution of robotic-assisted procedures to achieving the target of 65 per cent of patients waiting less than 18 weeks for elective care; and what data they hold on current waiting lists for robotic procedures.
- Answer
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Monthly inpatient procedure data is published regularly as part of the Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency dataset. The number of finished consultant episodes with a procedure from January 2024 to February 2026 is included in the table below. Whilst the data is published, it is provisional and may be incomplete or contain errors for which no adjustments have yet been made. Counts produced from provisional data are likely to be lower than those generated for the same period in the final dataset. This shortfall will be most pronounced in the final month of the latest period, in this case February 2026. The following table shows the number of inpatient finished consultant episodes for each month from 2024 to February 2026:
Month
Finished consultant episodes with a procedure
February 2026
688,599
January 2026
1,081,294
December 2025
1,051,403
November 2025
1,082,788
October 2025
1,184,030
September 2025
1,151,112
August 2025
1,078,412
July 2025
1,195,585
June 2025
1,141,939
May 2025
1,148,930
April 2025
1,113,620
March 2025
1,124,068
February 2025
1,066,024
January 2025
1,162,743
December 2024
1,051,251
November 2024
1,142,324
October 2024
1,201,633
September 2024
1,117,229
August 2024
1,117,522
July 2024
1,187,835
June 2024
1,090,901
May 2024
1,155,607
April 2024
1,120,946
March 2024
1,071,637
February 2024
1,064,516
January 2024
1,116,786
Source: Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency data, NHS England.
No formal assessment has currently been made on the contribution of robotic-assisted procedures to achieving the March 2026 target of 65% of patient pathways waiting less than 18 weeks to start first treatment.
The Elective Reform Plan, January 2025, outlined the productivity and modernisation efforts needed to restore 18-week referral-to-treatment standards. We will continue to utilise widespread advances in techniques and technology, including robotic surgery to deliver higher quality care sooner. In February 2026, performance against the standard for 92% of patients to start first treatment within 18 weeks of referral was 62.6%, 3.4% higher than a year earlier.
Data on the current waiting list for pathways involving robotic procedures is not held in the format requested.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- HL16562
- Session
- 2024-26
- Subjects
- Surgery Robotics
- Contains statistics
- Yes
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-04-29 10:18:38 +0100
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