Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report from the Patient Safety Commissioner entitled The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February 2024, whether she is taking steps to implement the recommendation that women treated with mesh should be compensated.
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.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many learning disability nurse vacancies there are as of 30 April 2024.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold vacancy rates that are granular enough to identify rates for learning disability nurses. However, NHS England publishes quarterly vacancy statistics for registered nurses working in National Health Service trusts, which are available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to publish the informative learning and feedback from the Innovative Devices Access Pathway pilot.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Innovative Devices Access Pathway (IDAP) pilot is due to run until March 2025. We are conducting internal and external reviews to seek feedback and learning from the pilot. This will provide comprehensive insights and knowledge to inform the feasibility and development of a future IDAP pathway. The outcome of these reviews will inform a wider evaluation of the IDAP. Further details of the future IDAP pathway, and the outcome of the pilot, will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times in ambulance and emergency departments in Yorkshire.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce vacancies on the New Hospitals Programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding her Department has allocated to prostate cancer research in the last 5 years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is proud to invest £1.3 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was over £121.8 million for 2022/23, with more spent on cancer than any other disease group. In 2018, the Government announced £75 million towards clinical trials for prostate cancer, with a focus on improving early diagnosis, survival rates, and exploring options for different treatments for men affected by the disease.
Since April 2019, the NIHR has awarded £79.1 million across 49 prostate cancer research programmes. Research includes randomised controlled trials of different treatments for prostate cancer, a randomised controlled trial of different methods of biopsy for suspected prostate cancer, and survivors' rehabilitation evaluation after cancer.
On 19 November 2023, the Government and Prostate Cancer UK announced a £42 million screening trial to find ways of detecting the country’s most common male cancer earlier. Prostate Cancer UK is leading the development of the trial, with the Government contributing £16 million through the Department. Additionally, the NIHR supported over 100 commercial and non-commercial clinical research studies in 2023/24, through the NIHR Research Delivery Network.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her planned timescale is for ambulance service data to be active on the Federated Data Platform for use by participating hospital trusts.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform will securely bring together information from hospital health records, waiting lists, and theatre and staff rosters, to better manage patient care. There is no planned timescale for ambulance service data to be used by trusts participating in local instances of the NHS Federated Data Platform, although this may be possible in the future.
The ambulance data will be used by NHS England to monitor ambulance activity, including response and handover times, to support improvement of patient safety and operational delivery. Trusts may have access to some ambulance service data through the dashboard, made available to authorised users via the national instance of the NHS Federated Data Platform. More information on this dashboard is available at the following link:
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the roll out of the Government's Projects Academy for staff working on the New Hospitals Programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As is usual for major Government programmes, the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) is using both internal and external resources to ensure the right capabilities and specialist skills are in place to deliver the programme. The NHP is procuring its long-term delivery partner, which will provide flexible external expertise in technical design, commercial functions, programme delivery capabilities, and other areas.
The NHP is developing a Knowledge and Skills Transfer (KST) Strategy to embed the self-sustaining knowledge and skills required to deliver the programme, ensuring that as the balance within the team changes, the appropriate transfers take place.
The NHP continues to support its employees' development and regularly reviews the Learning and Development offer available across the programme, to support staff in the successful delivery of the programme. This includes supporting staff within the NHP, and Project Directors from NHS England trusts, to take advantage of the Government’s Project Academy by participating in the Project Leadership Programme and Major Projects Leadership Academy.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase (a) internal expertise and (b) capacity in the New Hospitals Programme in (i) technical design and (ii) programme delivery.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As is usual for major Government programmes, the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) is using both internal and external resources to ensure the right capabilities and specialist skills are in place to deliver the programme. The NHP is procuring its long-term delivery partner, which will provide flexible external expertise in technical design, commercial functions, programme delivery capabilities, and other areas.
The NHP is developing a Knowledge and Skills Transfer (KST) Strategy to embed the self-sustaining knowledge and skills required to deliver the programme, ensuring that as the balance within the team changes, the appropriate transfers take place.
The NHP continues to support its employees' development and regularly reviews the Learning and Development offer available across the programme, to support staff in the successful delivery of the programme. This includes supporting staff within the NHP, and Project Directors from NHS England trusts, to take advantage of the Government’s Project Academy by participating in the Project Leadership Programme and Major Projects Leadership Academy.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 21 March 2024 to Question 17965 on Stepping Hill Hospital: Repairs and Maintenance, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the state of repair of buildings at Stepping Hill hospital on capacity in (a) Stockport and (b) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not currently collect information on the impact of the condition of the National Health Service estate on capacity. However, we recognise the importance of modern healthcare estates in tackling hospital waiting lists. We are investing significant sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings, so staff have the facilities needed to provide world-class care for patients, including £4.2 billion this financial year for trusts to spend on necessary maintenance and repairs. This is on top of expected investment of over £20 billion in the New Hospital Programme, as well as £1.7 billion for over 70 hospital upgrades across England.