Speech Therapy Services

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 7 June 2011.

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Photo of Anne Milton Anne Milton The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health 2:30, 7 June 2011

We most certainly can do better than that. I agree with my hon. Friend that such problems are often a barrier, and that therapy can unlock so much more. I refer him to service redesigns that have happened, such as at the Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, which redesigned its clinical pathways with the result that the number of children waiting longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment fell from 409 in May 2010 to eight at the end of January 2011. That is a fantastic improvement in the service. This is not all about money, but about the way in which services are designed.