Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of pharmacies in Northumberland that were contracted to be open for 100 hours a week on 23 January 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 31 December 2023, there were 68 pharmacies in Northumberland, including five that were contracted to be open for at least 72 hours. On 31 December 2019, there were 71 pharmacies in Northumberland, including six that were contracted to be open for at least 100 hours.
In May 2023 new legislation came into force which enabled 100-hour pharmacies to reduce their minimum number of opening hours to 72, to support the viability of those pharmacies and prevent them from closing.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of pharmacies contracted to be open for 100 hours a week in Northumberland in 2019.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 31 December 2023, there were 68 pharmacies in Northumberland, including five that were contracted to be open for at least 72 hours. On 31 December 2019, there were 71 pharmacies in Northumberland, including six that were contracted to be open for at least 100 hours.
In May 2023 new legislation came into force which enabled 100-hour pharmacies to reduce their minimum number of opening hours to 72, to support the viability of those pharmacies and prevent them from closing.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of pharmacies open in Northumberland in 2019.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 31 December 2023, there were 68 pharmacies in Northumberland, including five that were contracted to be open for at least 72 hours. On 31 December 2019, there were 71 pharmacies in Northumberland, including six that were contracted to be open for at least 100 hours.
In May 2023 new legislation came into force which enabled 100-hour pharmacies to reduce their minimum number of opening hours to 72, to support the viability of those pharmacies and prevent them from closing.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of pharmacies in Northumberland.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 31 December 2023, there were 68 pharmacies in Northumberland, including five that were contracted to be open for at least 72 hours. On 31 December 2019, there were 71 pharmacies in Northumberland, including six that were contracted to be open for at least 100 hours.
In May 2023 new legislation came into force which enabled 100-hour pharmacies to reduce their minimum number of opening hours to 72, to support the viability of those pharmacies and prevent them from closing.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
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 availability of medication for people with ADHD in Wansbeck constituency; and what recent estimate he has made of when supplies of this medication will be available.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Shortages of medicines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have primarily been driven by capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites These issues have resulted in global supply disruptions. The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, which should resolve by April 2024.
We have well-established processes to manage supply issues and continue to work with the respective manufacturers and all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the supply disruptions are resolved as soon as possible.
We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine shortages can be and we want to assure patients that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues with ADHD medicine supply in the United Kingdom as soon as possible and to help ensure patients are able to access these medicines in the short and long term.
We do not hold information or act at a local level but issue regular communication to enable healthcare professionals to make appropriate prescribing decisions.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
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 number of people working in the social care sector.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many nurses currently work (a) permanent (b) bank and (c) permanent and bank work patterns.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
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 ensure that residents in care homes can access a dentist.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Community dental services (CDS) offer dental care to vulnerable patients who are referred by a general practitioners or Social Worker and cannot be treated in a general National Health Service dental practice. Treatments are provided in settings including hospitals, specialist health centres and mobile clinics, as well as through home visits or visits in nursing and care homes.
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population, including for people in care homes. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards (ICBs) from April 2023. ICBs will be responsible for meeting the needs of its local population by working with patient groups, including on communication needs. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
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 reduce waiting times for (a) GP appointments, (b) Accident and Emergency treatment and (c) delayed medical (i) treatments and (ii) operations in hospital.
Answered by Will Quince
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which contains measures to help people make an informed choice about which practice is best for them, book general practice appointments more easily, benefit from more options when they need care and bolster general practice teams with other professionals who can help them to deliver over a million more appointments this winter.
As announced in the Autumn Statement, the Government is investing an additional £3.3 billion in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25 to enable rapid action to improve urgent and emergency, elective, and primary care performance to pre-pandemic levels.
The pandemic has put enormous pressures on the National Health Service with elective waiting lists growing to over 7 million patients but we remain committed to ensuring people get the right care at the right time. The NHS will set out detailed recovery plans in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
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 reduce the (a) pressure on and (b) workload of NHS staff.
Answered by Will Quince
We are committed to looking after the National Health Service workforce. The health, safety and wellbeing of NHS staff is a priority and as we continue to grow the NHS workforce. There are now over 42,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) more staff working in NHS provider trusts and commissioning bodies than a year ago in October 2021, including almost 4,700 more doctors and over 10,500 more nurses.
The NHS People Plan and NHS People Promise, published in July 2020, set out a comprehensive range of actions that are focussed on making the NHS a better place to work and to improve retention. This includes a stronger focus on health and wellbeing, strengthening leadership and management to support staff and expanding opportunities for flexible working. We have also committed to publishing a long term workforce plan this year to help ensure the NHS has the robust and resilient workforce it needs for the future.