Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department issues guidance to GP surgeries on the frequency with which patient noticeboards are (a) checked for out of date information and (b) updated.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not issue guidance to general practice (GP) surgeries on the frequency with which patient noticeboards are checked for out-of-date information and updated. As independent contractors, it is up to each individual GP surgery to check for out-of-date information and update patient noticeboards.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to increase the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals in the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
As of September 2022, there were more than 1.2 million full-time equivalent staff working in the National Health Service. We are also on schedule to deliver an additional 50,000 more nurses by 2024. The NHS People Plan sets out a focus on creating a more modern, compassionate and inclusive culture through improved health and wellbeing, equality and diversity, culture and leadership and flexible working. NHS England continues to support systems to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of local workforces.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children under the age of (a) four and (b) 11 were admitted to hospital for a tooth extraction due to decay in Wirral South constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Wirral South constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan stated the aim of increasing the mental health workforce in England by an additional 27,000 professionals by 2023/24. NHS England and Health Education England are working with local integrated care systems, including in Cheshire and Merseyside, to confirm plans for service models, supply, retention and recruitment until 2024.
NHS England continues to support local systems, including in Cheshire and Merseyside, to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of the local mental health workforce. This includes mental health hubs in each integrated care system and occupational health services which are being supported through the Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing national programme.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Wirral South constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Wirral South.
NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with diabetes in Wirral South constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the number of people that were diagnosed with diabetes in Wirral South constituency in each of the calendar years from 2016 to 2020, broken down by diabetes type.
Year of diagnosis | Number of people diagnosed with diabetes | |
Type 1 | Type 2 and Other | |
2016 | 10 | 245 |
2017 | 10 | 210 |
2018 | 10 | 175 |
2019 | 5 | 230 |
2020 | 10 | 190 |
Source: National Diabetes Audit
Notes:
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of midwives in Wirral South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England retains oversight of local workforce plans and is updated on vacancy rates. However, recruitment and retention is undertaken at trust level.
In 2022, an additional £127 million has been invested in the National Health Service maternity workforce and improving neonatal care, including in Wirral South. This is in addition to the £95 million invested in 2021 to fund a further 1,200 midwives and 100 consultant obstetricians. The NHS People Plan focuses on improving the retention of NHS staff by prioritising staff health and wellbeing. In 2022/23, £45 million has been allocated to support the continuation of 40 mental health hubs, the Professional Nurse Advocates programme and expanding the NHS Practitioner Health service.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 dental practices were rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in Wirral South constituency as of 17 October 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not currently rate providers of primary dental care services. The CQC publishes an assessment against five ‘key aspects’ which determine whether a dental provider is meeting its regulatory requirements. These are:
- Treating people with respect and involving them in their care;
- Providing care, treatment and support that meets people's needs;
- Caring for people safely and protecting them from harm;
- Staffing; and
- Quality and suitability of management.
The CQC provides online information for the public to find local dentists and profiles, which display the regulatory performance and inspection reports.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Wirral South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Wirral South This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.
The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Wirral South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the government plans to spend more than £8bn from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in GP surgeries, including in Wirral South. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workload such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and freeing up funding rules to widen the types of staff that work in general practice, including in Wirral South.