Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of NHS provision for the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in Suffolk.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to assessment and treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. The NICE guideline on ADHD does not recommend a maximum waiting time from referral for an assessment of ADHD to the point of assessment or diagnosis.
Whilst the Department has not made a specific assessment, Suffolk and North East Essex ICB advises that it has undertaken a review of children’s ADHD and autism services. As a result of the review, and current demand, the ICB has agreed additional funding of £3.3 million to support the services to not only reduce the time children are waiting for assessment but also increase the service provision to meet future demand. The ICB is also looking at potential new models of delivery and at the current pathways to see how it can utilise them more efficiently to ensure a smoother process for families.
In respect of adult ADHD and autism services, the ICB has worked closely with its local National Health Service provider, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, to closely monitor and respond to increases in demand. In March 2024, the ICB agreed to invest £300,000 to support those patients on the waiting list with additional advice and support.
In respect of the adequacy of ADHD service provision nationally, in December 2023, NHS England initiated a rapid piece of work to consider ADHD service provision within the NHS. The initial phase of work identified challenges, including with current service models and the ability to keep pace with demand. Following this initial review, NHS England is establishing a new ADHD taskforce alongside the government, to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The new taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD and help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England has announced that it will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional NHS dental appointments have been made available for patients as a result of the Dental Recovery Plan in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
Our Dentistry Recovery Plan, backed by £200 million, will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for National Health Service dental patients. It will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. A New Patient Premium is supporting dentists to take on new patients, and since the end of January 2024, nearly 500 more practices have said they are open to new patients.
We are committed to evaluating the impacts of the measures included in our plan, and we will publish monthly data on progress once available. Dentists have two months from the date of completion of a course of NHS treatment to submit an FP17 claim for payment.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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 reduce ambulance waiting times in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to achieve our ambition of reducing average Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes across 2024/25, including in Suffolk. A summary of the progress made, and actions taken in 2024/25 is set out in Urgent and emergency care recovery plan year 2: building on learning from 2023/24, which is available at the following link:
Nationally, ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to increase deployed hours and reduce response times, and this service capacity is being maintained in 2024/25. This is alongside the delivery of new ambulances, and action to reduce handover delays. With more ambulances on the roads, patients will receive the treatment they need more swiftly.
Since we published our plan, there has been significant improvement in ambulance response times, including in Suffolk. In 2023/24, average Category 2 ambulance response time in the East of England was over 23 minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of over 34%.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average (a) cost per adult and (b) length of stay was for an acute hospital bed day in the Suffolk and North East Essex integrated care system in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The average cost per adult for an acute hospital bed day by integrated care system, is not collected centrally by the Department. NHS England publishes a national cost collection which includes unit costs for non-elective inpatient stays. This data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/
The information on length of stay is not available in the format requested. NHS England publishes general and acute length of bed stay data, with data available at a trust level but not an integrated care system level. The trust level data is available at the following link:
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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 waiting times for elective surgery for people in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to increase National Health Service elective activity and productivity above pre-pandemic levels, while expanding capacity through creating a new network of community diagnostic centres and maximising all available independent sector capacity.
NHS England provides robust support and challenge to the trusts which have the highest number of patients waiting the longest for elective treatment, with each receiving bespoke regional or national intervention where it is required.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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 adequacy of provision of NHS dentists in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
On 7 February, we published Faster, simpler and fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, which is backed by £200 million and will fund around 2.5 million additional appointments. The plan sets out our actions to improve dental access for patients across the country to address the challenges facing NHS dentistry, including in Suffolk.
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board is responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment across the ICB area.
NHS Dental Statistics, published by NHS Digital, provides data on dental activity in England. The latest annual report is available online at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to help increase access to dentists in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency and (b) Suffolk.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
On 7 February, we published Faster, simpler and fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, which is backed by £200 million and will fund around 2.5 million additional appointments. The plan sets out our actions to improve dental access for patients across the country to address the challenges facing NHS dentistry, including in Suffolk.
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board is responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment across the ICB area.
NHS Dental Statistics, published by NHS Digital, provides data on dental activity in England. The latest annual report is available online at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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 improve access to mental health services in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The National Health Service forecasts that, between 2018/19 and 2023/24, spending on mental health services has increased by £4.7 billion in cash terms, compared to the target of £3.4 billion set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan. All integrated care boards are also on track to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2023/24.
Almost £16 billion was invested in mental health in 2022/23, enabling over 3.5 million people, including in the Suffolk Coastal constituency, to be in contact with mental health services, a 10% increase on the previous year.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will introduce a system of redress for NHS dentists that fulfil less than (a) 80%, (b) 50% and (c) 10% of their performance target.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
National Health Service dental contract holders are awarded funding at the start of each financial year, based on the contracted number of Units of Dental Activity (UDA). Contractors are required to deliver at least 96% of their contracted activity on an annual basis. Where this does not occur, the NHS reclaims the difference between the monies paid to contractors and the value of work which has been delivered. NHS England will encourage commissioners and contractors to work together to resolve underperformance against the contract at the mid-year review point, or by voluntarily rebasing their contract in the first instance. Where this is not possible, and where there have been three consecutive years of persistent underperformance, commissioners will be able to rebase contracts to the highest level of UDAs delivered over the three-year period from the following year, and recommission unused activity to other providers.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how her Department determines the performance target for units of dental activity for each dental practice.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England.
The current General Dental Service (GDS) contract and Personal Dental Service (PDS) agreement were introduced in 2006. The majority of contracts which deliver routine, or mandatory, dental services are legacy arrangements from pre-2006, and the contracted Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) under these contracts generally reflect the treatment volumes that were required from each practice prior to the new arrangements coming into force.
Activity levels for any new GDS contracts or PDS agreements would be determined as part of the procurement process, taking into account oral health needs assessments undertaken by ICBs, to identify areas of need and to determine the priorities for investment.
Contractors are expected to deliver 96 to 102% of their agreed activity each year. Where contracts deliver less than 96%, the value of the undelivered activity is recouped from the contractor. Undelivered activity between 96 to 100% may be carried forward into the next financial year. Activity greater than 100% may be funded to 110%, if there is a local arrangement with the ICB, or may be deducted from the activity requirements of the next financial year.