Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussion he has had with NHS hospitals in England on the matter of hospitals having to pay higher fees for agency workers due to additional two bank holidays this year.
Answered by Will Quince
The Secretary of State has not had discussions on this matter. Agency price caps for bank holidays are capped at Sunday rates. We know that National Health Service trusts that pay enhancements on bank holidays, for both substantive and bank employees, attract more staff, meaning most shifts are filled before agencies are approached. NHS trusts use workforce optimisation tools such as the use of e-rostering and e-job planning to allow the NHS to efficiently schedule staff rotas around public holidays.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with senior NHS staff on workforce planning for summer 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care routinely engages with senior staff in the National Health Service in England, covering a range of issues including workforce planning.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce the size of backlogs in the NHS approaching summer 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
Having met our target to virtually eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures in July 2022 we have now significantly reduced the number of patients waiting 18 months or more by April 2023, ahead of summer. As a result of the pandemic, the number of patients waiting over 18 months peaked at almost 125,000 in September 2021. Official NHS England statistics show at the end of March 2023 there were 10,737 patients waiting over 18 months, a reduction of over 91% from this peak.
Steps being taken to reduce the size of the backlog include increasing capacity, seeking alternate capacity in other trusts or the independent sector and engaging with patients to understand their choices.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that NHS hospitals have sufficient resources to provide cover for staff absences on bank holidays.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Health Service is a combination of integrated care services that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Workforce optimisation tools such as the use of e-rostering and e-job planning allow the NHS to efficiently schedule staff rotas. In addition, NHS staff banks offer a flexible staffing pool to meet additional capacity demands.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 increase the uptake of breast screenings in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Hornsey & Wood Green constituency falls within the London Borough of Haringey, which is served by the North London Breast Screening Service. Local partners in North London have implemented, and continue to lead, initiatives to raise awareness of breast cancer screening and to encourage eligible women to participate in screening, specifically working to improve screening for clients with disabilities and people experiencing homelessness, improving language support offered during screening appointments by making available tablets with translation applications, recruiting 10 community champions, working 10 paid hours a week, in Haringey & Enfield to support improvements in breast screening uptake, and recruiting a health promotion team to deliver targeted uptake improvement work.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of eligible women attended a breast screening in London in 2022; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all eligible women receive timely breast cancer screenings in London.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following table shows the number of women screened in London and the proportion of eligible women who attended a breast screening in London between April 2021 and March 2022, the latest data available.
Region | Eligible population | Number of women screened | Coverage (less than three years since last test) |
London | 865,198 | 480,474 | 55.5% |
We have invested £10 million into the breast screening programme, which will provide 28 new breast screening units to be targeted at areas with the greatest challenges of uptake and coverage.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 2 November 2022 to Question 72433 on Gender Dysphoria: Children and Young People, what recent progress he has made on establishing a new phase one service in London.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England’s consultation on the interim service specification that the Phase 1 service in London will follow closed last December. NHS England has now reviewed and analysed the responses and a report summarising all the feedback received will be published soon, alongside the final interim service specification.
NHS England intends to provide an update on timescales for the Phase 1 services commencing operation, as well as wider progress being made to transform and improve service provision in this important area, shortly.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 November to Question 67152 on Heart Diseases: Diagnosis, what proportion of additional diagnostic tests delivered by Community Diagnostic Centres have been echocardiograms.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 2 April 2023, Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) have delivered 95,840 additional echocardiograms, which is 2.6% of the total number of the 3.6 million additional checks, tests and scans delivered by CDCs up to that date.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing alcohol labelling for menus in restaurants and cafes in England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have committed to consult on whether to introduce calorie labelling on pre-packed alcohol and alcoholic drinks sold in the out-of-home sector.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 potential merits of including a retained reflex check at the two to two-and-a-half years old health and development review.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No specific assessment has been made.