Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
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 estimate of the number of scans for suspected prostate cancer performed by the NHS in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While some data on scanning of the prostate is available from the Diagnostic Imaging Dataset, it does not distinguish between scans for non-cancer indications, scans for suspected cancer, namely cancer diagnosis, and scans to inform staging and treatment planning for cancer which is already diagnosed.
Screening for the most common cancer in men, prostate cancer, is complex but we are backing groundbreaking trials to improve diagnostic processes and save thousands more lives. In 2021, 43,378 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, a 9% decrease compared to 2019. The recently announced TRANSFORM trial, which will be led by Prostate Cancer UK and supported by £16 million of Government funding, aims to find the best way to screen for prostate cancer. The trial will cover the whole of the United Kingdom, although final decisions on specific locations are yet to be taken. The UK National Screening Committee will be reviewing the evidence that is published by this study, which will help to inform any future recommendation on creating a national screening programme for prostate cancer.
To support faster diagnosis, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways and in October 2022 introduced the best practice timed pathway for prostate cancer. This guidance recommends those with suspected prostate cancer undertake multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging before biopsy, which ensures only those men most at risk of having cancer undergo an invasive biopsy.
Alongside cutting-edge research, we are helping more people get diagnosed earlier for cancer and other conditions by rolling out additional tests, checks and scans at 160 locations across England through our Community Diagnostics Centres programme.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
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 estimate of the number of (a) MRI and (b) CT scans for suspected prostate cancer performed by the NHS in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While some data on scanning of the prostate is available from the Diagnostic Imaging Dataset, it does not distinguish between scans for non-cancer indications, scans for suspected cancer, namely cancer diagnosis, and scans to inform staging and treatment planning for cancer which is already diagnosed.
Screening for the most common cancer in men, prostate cancer, is complex but we are backing groundbreaking trials to improve diagnostic processes and save thousands more lives. In 2021, 43,378 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, a 9% decrease compared to 2019. The recently announced TRANSFORM trial, which will be led by Prostate Cancer UK and supported by £16 million of Government funding, aims to find the best way to screen for prostate cancer. The trial will cover the whole of the United Kingdom, although final decisions on specific locations are yet to be taken. The UK National Screening Committee will be reviewing the evidence that is published by this study, which will help to inform any future recommendation on creating a national screening programme for prostate cancer.
To support faster diagnosis, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways and in October 2022 introduced the best practice timed pathway for prostate cancer. This guidance recommends those with suspected prostate cancer undertake multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging before biopsy, which ensures only those men most at risk of having cancer undergo an invasive biopsy.
Alongside cutting-edge research, we are helping more people get diagnosed earlier for cancer and other conditions by rolling out additional tests, checks and scans at 160 locations across England through our Community Diagnostics Centres programme.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2024 to Question 12829 on Patient Choice Schemes, how many patients were offered choice at the point of referral in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Constitution allows patients to be treated by any provider who holds a contract for the provision of National Health Services. This is a legal right, although there are certain circumstances in which a choice may not be possible. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework
Last year, the Government set out how it will make it easier for patients to exercise their choice by improving the NHS App, increasing choice for patients already on waiting lists, and raising awareness of patients’ right to choose.
At the point of referral, for example at a general practice appointment, patients will be actively offered a list of providers which are clinically appropriate for their condition. This will be a minimum of five providers where possible. Patients will also be informed of their right to choose, and encouraged to raise this at the time of the referral.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 12 October 2021 to Question 51702 on NHS: Expenditure, how much NHS England, clinical commissioning groups and integrated care boards spent in aggregate on (a) mental health services, (b) acute health services, (c) social care services, (d) primary medical services, (e) specialised services, (f) NHS continuing healthcare and (g) all other recorded spending categories in each financial year since 2015-16; and how much those organisations plan to spend in aggregate in each of those areas in the (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested up to 2023/24 is in the attached table due to its size. NHS England continues to work with integrated care boards (ICB) to develop their financial plans for 2024/25. Until that process is complete, we will not have a final agreed set of financial plans for the year ahead.
The £38 billion increase in clinical commissioning group and ICB direct commissioning spend between the 2019/20 and 2023/24 budgets reflects the record settlement for health and social care funding confirmed at the 2021 Spending Review.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an estimate of the number of NHS (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) staff that left the NHS for reasons other than reaching the age of retirement in 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, and the Human Resources system for the National Health Service. Ad hoc supplementary information releases are made which include reasons for leaving, where they are known, for staff leaving the NHS by staff group. The latest data published for all staff groups is for April 2022 to March 2023, and is available at the following link:
This has been superseded for nurses and health visitors by the Nurse leavers by reason for leaving and gender, September 2022 to 2023, which is available at the following link:
People leaving active service in NHS trusts will include those moving to primary care services, in particular doctors in training grades and non-NHS providers, or those going to work permanently or temporarily in healthcare services in other areas of the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to publish the results of the review by McKinsey and Co into NHS productivity.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2024 Spring Budget committed £3.4 billion of capital funding to support NHS England in driving technologically and digitally enabled productivity improvement. To prepare for this work, NHS England commissioned McKinsey and Company as part of an internal exercise. The Department will provide a public update on progress and plans for delivering the Spring Budget’s announcements.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much elective recovery funding each integrated care board received less penalties for missed targets (a) in absolute terms and (b) as a proportion of the elective recovery funding initially allocated to the board, in financial year 2022/23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Each integrated care board (ICB) received their full elective recovery fund (ERF) allocation in 2022/23 and no penalties were applied for missing elective activity targets.
The initial ERF allocations for each ICB are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/allocation-of-resources-2022-23/
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England spent on agency staff in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The first full financial year for which NHS England was in existence, as the NHS Commissioning Board, was 2013/14. NHS England only holds information on agency spend in combination with other commissioning bodies, for instance integrated care boards, formerly known as clinical commissioning groups. The following table shows the total spent on agency staff in NHS England and the commissioning bodies, each year since 2013/14 to 2022/23:
Year | Spend |
2013/14 | £240,000,000 |
2014/15 | £300,000,000 |
2015/16 | £310,000,000 |
2016/17 | £270,000,000 |
2017/18 | £190,000,000 |
2018/19 | £160,000,000 |
2019/20 | £130,000,000 |
2020/21 | £160,000,000 |
2021/22 | £160,000,000 |
2022/23 | £210,000,000 |
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many trusts have agreed to join the federated data platform as of 7 March 2024.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Federated Data Platform is a vital upgrade for the National Health Service, allowing it to be much more effective in how it handles its data, to improve outcomes for patients. It will allow information about staff, waiting times, equipment and medicines to be brought together, to allow better planning of how the NHS uses its resources.
41 trusts have agreed to join the Federated Data Platform, by means of transitioning from their participation in one of the pilot programmes. In parallel, the programme is actively engaging with 29 new trusts, regarding joining the Federated Data Platform in 2024. We are working with regions and local organisations to plan their implementation timeline.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the (a) final outturn spend for 2022-23, (b) forecast outturn for 2023-24 and (c) planned budget for 2024-25 for the NHS England Frontline Digitisation programme budget.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The final outturn spend for 2022/23 is £472.8 million. Outturn for 2023/24 is to be confirmed once the final accounts have been approved. Final confirmation of the budgets for 2024/25 is pending, and will be confirmed imminently.