Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of making Group B Strep a notifiable disease on the (a) prevention and (b) treatment of this infection in newborns.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Notifiable diseases, listed under schedule 1 of the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010, are kept under review by the Department and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The Government published a public consultation between 12 July and 15 November 2023, seeking views on proposed amendments to the regulations, including adding diseases to schedule 1 to make them notifiable.
Adding Group B Streptococcal (GBS) Infection to schedule 1 was not included in the consultation proposals, but a small number of respondents suggested it could be suitable for inclusion. A summary of responses to the consultation has been published. The Department and the UKHSA are considering the consultation responses, and confirmation of any changes to the regulations will be published in due course.
To increase awareness and understanding of GBS, NHS England published a revised Core Competency Framework in May 2023, which covers the mandated training for all maternity services, which now includes GBS. Undertaking this training will enable midwives and doctors to be better informed when speaking to families about the risk of GBS in labour. The Core Competency Framework is incentivised through the maternity incentive scheme administrated by NHS Resolution.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what systems her Department has in place to (a) track and (b) report cases of Group B Strep infection; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of making Group B Strep a notifiable disease on those systems.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
National surveillance systems, established and managed by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), are used to monitor trends, characteristics, and outcomes of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection, vital to prevention efforts. These include the reporting of cases diagnosed in local microbiology laboratories, and the submission of clinical isolates to the national reference laboratory. Analyses based on this surveillance is published in annual reports.
The UKHSA has jointly co-ordinated periods of enhanced surveillance with academic and public health collaborators, allowing greater understanding of risk factors and outcomes of infection, vital in identifying opportunities for prevention. Data generated through laboratory surveillance is utilised to assess the impact of prevention efforts.
The list of notifiable diseases is kept under review by the Department, with UKHSA involvement. Should GBS be added to the list of notifiable diseases, the means to assess the impact of this change on surveillance data will be considered.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to The Hughes Report, published by the Patient Safety Commissioner on 7 February 2024, if she will ensure that people impacted by bowel mesh are eligible for financial redress.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course. Bowel mesh, also known as rectopexy mesh, did not fall within the definition of pelvic organ prolapse that the PSC investigated for her report.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her Department's timescales are for responding to The Hughes Report, published by the Patient Safety Commissioner on 7 February 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course. Bowel mesh, also known as rectopexy mesh, did not fall within the definition of pelvic organ prolapse that the PSC investigated for her report.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people entered the NHS midwifery workforce through (a) undergraduate training, (b) an apprenticeship, (c) a postgraduate conversion, (d) a return to midwifery programme and (e) international recruitment in the most recent period for which data are available; and if her Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of each such route on the size of the midwifery workforce in each of the (i) last and (ii) next five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is currently considering the methodology for undertaking a proper assessment of the impact of the various supply routes into the midwifery workforce.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in 2023 sets out the need to grow midwifery education and training, in line with the conclusions of the Ockenden Review. We will increase midwifery training placements from a baseline of 3,778 places to 4,269 places, and that by 2028 we envisage that about 5% will be through apprenticeships. We envisage that trusts will meet establishment levels set by midwifery staffing tools and achieve fill rates by 2027/28. Recent investment in midwifery of 650 training places in 2019 and 1,000 in each of the following three years means we expect to see solid growth in midwives of between 1.8 and 1.9% per year over the course of the plan. These increases are being measured against the 2018/19 baseline of 2,715 starters on midwifery programmes. And in early 2022, a funding offer was agreed to support 300 places for adult nurses on the shortened midwifery programme.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the availability of flexible working arrangements for midwives.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
‘We work flexibly’ is one of the elements contained in the NHS People Promise with a commitment to deliver for staff, including midwives by 2024/25.
NHS England has created and shared flexible working arrangement resources and delivered bespoke webinars and workshops on the issue. They have also brought together midwifery leaders from across the system to share good practice, foster collaboration and support the implementation of flexible working across maternity services.
In September 2021, contractual changes took effect for employees covered by the NHS Terms & Conditions of Service Handbook which includes the right to request flexible working from day one without the need to provide a justification.
However, no assessment of the adequacy of the availability of flexible working arrangements specifically for midwives has been made.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the NHS is taking to reschedule as soon as possible cancer treatments and operations that were cancelled as a result of the covid-19 outbreak in hospitals.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A letter was issued to trusts on 29 April detailing the Second Phase of Response to COVID-19. This letter sets out that:
Local systems and Cancer Alliances must continue to identify ring-fenced diagnostic and surgical capacity for cancer, and providers must protect and deliver cancer surgery and cancer treatment by ensuring that cancer surgery hubs are fully operational. Full use should be made of the available contracted independent sector hospital and diagnostic capacity locally and regionally. Regional cancer Senior Responsible Officers must now provide assurance that these arrangements are in place everywhere.
Treatment must be brought back to pre-pandemic levels at the earliest opportunity to minimise potential harm, and to reduce the scale of the post-pandemic surge in demand.