Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the discharge process for patients in Surrey who are medically fit to leave hospital.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26 identifies reducing delays in hospital discharge as a key priority. Further information on the Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26 is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/
Hospitals are expected to eliminate discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by in-hospital issues, to work with local authorities to tackle the longest delays, starting with those over 21 days, and to profile discharges by pathway to support local planning. In addition to this, we published a new policy framework on 30 January 2025 for the £9 billion Better Care Fund policy framework 2025 to 2026, which requires the National Health Service and local authorities to jointly agree local goals for reducing discharge delays. Further information on the Better Care Fund policy framework 2025 to 2026 is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-care-fund-policy-framework-2025-to-2026
We are working with trusts, integrated care systems, and local authorities to share and embed best practice and to help them to use performance data more effectively to address their discharge delays. The Local Government Association has published a range of guidance documents and high impact change models to support improvements to hospital flow and discharge processes, which can be found at the following link:
Officials held a call on 18 July 2025 with the Epsom and St. Helier Trust regarding the trust’s discharge challenges and proposed actions to improve the situation.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with Surrey County Council on future arrangements for gathering local patient views on (a) health and (b) social care services in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local patient views will continue to be gathered through a variety of means, including local Healthwatch organisations, patient participation groups, and through national and local surveys.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, we are proposing to abolish local Healthwatch arrangements to place responsibility for obtaining feedback from local communities with integrated care boards for health, and local authorities for social care.
Implementing the abolition of local Healthwatch arrangements will require amendments to primary legislation. The timing of this is subject to the will of Parliament and will happen when parliamentary time allows.
As part of her review of patient safety, Dr Dash heard from more than 100 individuals or organisations with an interest in patient safety. The Department has also conducted several engagement events with local Healthwatch organisations and their representatives. This engagement is vital to communicate plans and to answer questions. This engagement will continue as the policy is further developed.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department is supporting schools in West Dorset constituency to provide mental health support for children on the child and adolescent mental health services waiting list.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
For children and young people in distress or struggling with their mental health, fast access to early, high-quality support is critical, including in West Dorset.
That is why the 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work with schools and colleges to better identify and meet children's mental health needs by continuing to roll out mental health support teams in schools and colleges, to reach full national coverage by 2029.
The 10-Year Health Plan will build on the work that has already begun to bring down waiting lists. This includes providing mental health support for almost one million more young people in school this year and an extra £688 million in Government funding this year to transform mental health services, specifically to hire more staff, deliver more early interventions, and get waiting lists down.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to child and adolescent mental health services in schools in West Dorset constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
For children and young people in distress or struggling with their mental health, fast access to early, high-quality support is critical, including in West Dorset.
That is why the 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work with schools and colleges to better identify and meet children's mental health needs by continuing to roll out mental health support teams in schools and colleges, to reach full national coverage by 2029.
The 10-Year Health Plan will build on the work that has already begun to bring down waiting lists. This includes providing mental health support for almost one million more young people in school this year and an extra £688 million in Government funding this year to transform mental health services, specifically to hire more staff, deliver more early interventions, and get waiting lists down.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to integrate child and adolescent mental health service provision into schools nationally.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
For children and young people in distress or struggling with their mental health, fast access to early, high-quality support is critical, including in West Dorset.
That is why the 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work with schools and colleges to better identify and meet children's mental health needs by continuing to roll out mental health support teams in schools and colleges, to reach full national coverage by 2029.
The 10-Year Health Plan will build on the work that has already begun to bring down waiting lists. This includes providing mental health support for almost one million more young people in school this year and an extra £688 million in Government funding this year to transform mental health services, specifically to hire more staff, deliver more early interventions, and get waiting lists down.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of inpatient mental health capacity in Greater Manchester; and what discussions he has had with Pennine Care NHS Trust on that issue.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such specific assessment has been made. The Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership is responsible for commissioning National Health Service mental health inpatient beds to meet the needs of the local population across Greater Manchester. Neither ministers nor departmental officials have held discussions with the Pennine Care NHS Trust on that issue.
Nationally, our ambition is to avoid unnecessary admissions to mental health inpatient services and provide care close to home, including alternatives to admission. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our plans to transform mental health services to improve access and treatment, and to promote good mental health and wellbeing for the nation. This includes piloting neighbourhood mental health centres, which will bring together a range of community mental health services under one roof, including crisis services and short-stay beds.
In addition, all integrated care boards (ICBs) were asked to publish a three-year plan to localise and realign mental health, learning disability, and autism inpatient care. The Greater Manchester ICB shared their plan at their public board on 20 November 2024. The plan commits to making the best use of resource and reducing reliance on inpatient care, so that more people can access care and support for their mental health, as and when they need it.
We will move care closer to home by reducing out of area placements for mental health patients by March 2027, as outlined in the medium-term planning framework. We will also use new integrated health organisations to break down barriers between services and ensure more integrated, holistic care, addressing both physical and mental health care needs, with more freedom to determine how best to meet the needs of their local populations.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what materials will be provided by the Government for the (a) the Premier League and (b) Samaritans in the Together Against Suicide Partnership.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of England's first ever Men's Health Strategy, the Government announced a groundbreaking partnership with the Premier League to tackle male suicide and improve health literacy. We will work with the Premier League to co-create materials that promote signposting to existing mental health and suicide prevention support. The partnership will also champion NHS England’s new Staying Safe from Suicide guidance, embedding its principles across club staff and driving adoption of the associated e-learning among mental health practitioners within club networks, ensuring best practice reaches those supporting players and fans. Further information on the Staying Safe from Suicide guidance and the associated e-learning is available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/staying-safe-from-suicide/#
https://www.minded.org.uk/Component/Details/849008
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the total annual NHS expenditure on GnRH analogue puberty blockers for under-18s in each financial year since 2010.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists or ‘puberty blockers’ are used to treat several medical conditions in children and young people. These can include precocious puberty, some forms of cancer, and endometriosis. They have also been used outside of their licenced indication to treat gender dysphoria.
There is no central registry that provides the total number of children in England who have been prescribed GnRH agonists through the National Health Service since 2010.
The following table shows the number of identifiable patients and total net ingredient cost for NHS prescriptions of GnRH agonists for all purposes for children aged 17 years old and under that were prescribed and dispensed in community pharmacies or general practices in England in each year from 2015/2016 to September 2025:
Financial year | The unique number of identified patients aged 17 years old and under who received an NHS prescription of GnRH for all purposes | The total net ingredient cost of prescriptions known to be issued to those aged 17 and under who received an NHS prescription of GnRH for all purposes |
2015/16 | 885 | £621,033.41 |
2016/17 | 987 | £692,927.42 |
2017/18 | 1,047 | £772,767.71 |
2018/19 | 1,072 | £806,393.82 |
2019/20 | 1,048 | £781,151.72 |
2020/21 | 936 | £703,531.55 |
2021/22 | 864 | £607,597.80 |
2022/23 | 849 | £586,845.56 |
2023/24 | 746 | £525,321.93 |
2024/25 | 622 | £449,611.72 |
2025/2026 | 432 | £219,338.73 |
Source: ePACT2, which sources data from the NHS Business Services Authority’s Information Services Data Warehouse.
Note: the net ingredient cost is the basic price of a product excluding VAT. It does not take account of discounts, rebates, dispensing costs, fees, and allowances paid to pharmacists and appliance contractors for the service they provide to the NHS, or prescription charge income received, where the single charge or Prescription Prepayment Certificate fee is paid, or foregone where prescriptions are dispensed free of charge.
The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold patient data prior to April 2015. This data excludes dispensing in secondary care and other settings, and private prescriptions.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients aged under 18 have been prescribed GnRH analogue puberty blockers through the NHS in each year since 2010.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists or ‘puberty blockers’ are used to treat several medical conditions in children and young people. These can include precocious puberty, some forms of cancer, and endometriosis. They have also been used outside of their licenced indication to treat gender dysphoria.
There is no central registry that provides the total number of children in England who have been prescribed GnRH agonists through the National Health Service since 2010.
The following table shows the number of identifiable patients and total net ingredient cost for NHS prescriptions of GnRH agonists for all purposes for children aged 17 years old and under that were prescribed and dispensed in community pharmacies or general practices in England in each year from 2015/2016 to September 2025:
Financial year | The unique number of identified patients aged 17 years old and under who received an NHS prescription of GnRH for all purposes | The total net ingredient cost of prescriptions known to be issued to those aged 17 and under who received an NHS prescription of GnRH for all purposes |
2015/16 | 885 | £621,033.41 |
2016/17 | 987 | £692,927.42 |
2017/18 | 1,047 | £772,767.71 |
2018/19 | 1,072 | £806,393.82 |
2019/20 | 1,048 | £781,151.72 |
2020/21 | 936 | £703,531.55 |
2021/22 | 864 | £607,597.80 |
2022/23 | 849 | £586,845.56 |
2023/24 | 746 | £525,321.93 |
2024/25 | 622 | £449,611.72 |
2025/2026 | 432 | £219,338.73 |
Source: ePACT2, which sources data from the NHS Business Services Authority’s Information Services Data Warehouse.
Note: the net ingredient cost is the basic price of a product excluding VAT. It does not take account of discounts, rebates, dispensing costs, fees, and allowances paid to pharmacists and appliance contractors for the service they provide to the NHS, or prescription charge income received, where the single charge or Prescription Prepayment Certificate fee is paid, or foregone where prescriptions are dispensed free of charge.
The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold patient data prior to April 2015. This data excludes dispensing in secondary care and other settings, and private prescriptions.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any NHS Trusts (a) employ specialist staff or (b) operate dedicated services to address genetic disorders associated with consanguinity.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service in England supports patients with a variety of conditions related to genetics. NHS England is piloting and evaluating new models of care to improve the equity of access to genetic services for the small proportion of couples at increased genetic risk due to close relative marriage. NHS England is funding additional capacity in several professions, including midwifery, genomics associates, and neonatal nurses, in nine pilot sites through the Genetic Risk Equity Project. 3.8 whole time equivalent (WTE) midwives and one WTE neonatal nurse were in post in 2024/25 to deliver the Genetic Risk Equity Project.