Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to expand national capacity for paediatric interventional radiology training.
Answered by Will Quince
As of January 2023, there were 1,584 full-time equivalent (FTE) trainee doctors working in clinical radiology services in the NHS in England. This is an increase of 274 (20.9%) since 2020.
The Government funded an additional 20 Specialty Training posts for interventional radiologists in 2021/22 and 2022/23. These increases have expanded the number of radiologists who can train to deliver paediatric interventional radiology.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Citizens Advice Bureau on the handling of NHS patient data and the new Palantir contract for that service.
Answered by Will Quince
There have been no specific discussions.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of ringfencing NHS Dental funding provisions.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of these functions will transfer to integrated care boards (ICBs) from April 2023.
We have assessed the merits of ringfencing National Health Service dental funding provisions. NHS England has provided guidance for ICBs that requires dental funding to be ringfenced, with any unused resources re-directed to improve NHS dental access in the first instance. A schedule setting out the dental ringfence has been issued to ICBs. NHS England’s 2023/24 revenue finance and contracting guidance, which provides more detail, is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2023-24-revenue-finance-and-contracting-guidance/
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken in the last 12 months to improve the capacity of NHS Dental provision in Huddersfield.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards from April 2023. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to National Health Service dental care, including in Huddersfield, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.
These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022. This includes enabling commissioning of up to 110% of contracted Units of Dental Activities to increase NHS care, fairer remuneration for practices providing complex treatment within current Band 2 treatments and removing barriers around use of staff skills mix in NHS dentistry. We have also worked with the General Dental Council on legislative proposals to allow the regulator greater flexibility to expand the registration options open to international dentists.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place this year.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 ensure the availability of NHS dentists in Huddersfield constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards from April 2023. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to National Health Service dental care, including in Huddersfield, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.
These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022. This includes enabling commissioning of up to 110% of contracted Units of Dental Activities to increase NHS care, fairer remuneration for practices providing complex treatment within current Band 2 treatments and removing barriers around use of staff skills mix in NHS dentistry. We have also worked with the General Dental Council on legislative proposals to allow the regulator greater flexibility to expand the registration options open to international dentists.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place this year.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the levels of delivery of Units of Dental Activity by NHS Dentists in (a) Huddersfield, (b) Kirklees and (c) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following table shows the number of Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) delivered over the past three financial years for Kirklees and West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). Data for Kirklees includes data for Huddersfield which is not published separately.
Financial year | Kirklees Local Authority | West Yorkshire ICB |
2019/20 | 771,845 | 3,307,858 |
2020/21 | 236,570 | 1,081,539 |
2021/22 | 555,156 | 2,678,102 |
The pandemic is likely to have had an impact on the UDAs delivered for 2019/20 and 2020/21.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to National Health Service dental care in England whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices to support the delivery of commissioned dental activity. These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022. This includes enabling commissioning of up to 110% of contracted UDAs to increase NHS care from December 2022. NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for further reform later this year.
On 29 March 2021, NHS England published a flexible commissioning toolkit for regional commissioners. Flexible commissioning is an element of existing NHS dental contracts that enables UDA to be better targeted towards priority and high needs groups of patients. NHS England is continuing to monitor the use of the arrangements to meet local needs.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the units of dental activity delivered by NHS dentists in (a) Huddersfield, (b) Kirklees and (c) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following table shows the number of Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) delivered over the past three financial years for Kirklees and West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). Data for Kirklees includes data for Huddersfield which is not published separately.
Financial year | Kirklees Local Authority | West Yorkshire ICB |
2019/20 | 771,845 | 3,307,858 |
2020/21 | 236,570 | 1,081,539 |
2021/22 | 555,156 | 2,678,102 |
The pandemic is likely to have had an impact on the UDAs delivered for 2019/20 and 2020/21.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to National Health Service dental care in England whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices to support the delivery of commissioned dental activity. These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022. This includes enabling commissioning of up to 110% of contracted UDAs to increase NHS care from December 2022. NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for further reform later this year.
On 29 March 2021, NHS England published a flexible commissioning toolkit for regional commissioners. Flexible commissioning is an element of existing NHS dental contracts that enables UDA to be better targeted towards priority and high needs groups of patients. NHS England is continuing to monitor the use of the arrangements to meet local needs.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with arthritis are currently waiting for elective surgery.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data is not available in the requested format.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 help support people with arthritis who are waiting for elective surgery.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To support the health of people with arthritis while they are waiting for elective treatment, NHS England has worked with Versus Arthritis on their Joint Replacement Support Package, a six point package aimed at local health systems to provide to patients.
The Department has taken steps to assist those waiting for elective treatment and surgery, for instance through patient choice and the My Planned Care platform.
The Government also announced on 24 January 2023 a Major Conditions Strategy, for which an interim report will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 help improve early diagnosis rates for arthritis.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is working to help improve early diagnosis rates for arthritis through its Getting It Right First Time rheumatology programme, which is designed to improve the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis. The national report makes a number of recommendations which look to support equitable and consistent access to diagnostic tests.
In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance to support early diagnosis of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, healthcare professionals and commissioners are expected to take them fully into account.