Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what psychological support is available for people (a) infected and (b) affected by contaminated blood and blood products in Morley and Outwood constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Psychological support is available for those who are beneficiaries of the England Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS), and their families. The EIBSS provides a grant of up to £900 a year for beneficiaries and family members to access counselling, and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved talking therapies. In August 2022, this offer was expanded to enable beneficiaries to access funding for ongoing and longer-term treatment. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/talking-therapy-support
A bespoke psychological support service for infected blood victims, commissioned by NHS England, is currently being developed, intended to go live in early Summer 2024.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who have died since being (a) treated with contaminated blood products and (b) given contaminated blood transfusions in Morley and Outwood constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has not made an estimate of the number of people who have died since being treated with contaminated blood products and given contaminated blood transfusions, in the Morley and Outwood constituency.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who were (a) treated with contaminated blood products and (b) given contaminated blood transfusions by the NHS in Morely and Outwood constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has not made an estimate of the number of people who were treated with contaminated blood products and given contaminated blood transfusions by the National Health Service in the Morely and Outwood constituency.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 reasons for the the rise in excess deaths since 2020.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Estimates from both the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the number of death registrations in England in 2023 was 6% higher than expected. It is likely that a combination of factors has contributed, including high flu prevalence, the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 and health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
More estimates from both OHID and ONS show that there has not been a rise in excess deaths since 2020 estimated numbers of excess deaths have reduced each year from 2020. The following table shows these estimates from 21 March 2020 to 1 December 2023:
| Pandemic to date | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 to date |
Number of excess deaths estimated by OHID | 170,804 | 70,719 | 43,108 | 30,596 | 26,381 |
% higher than expected | 9% | 19% | 9% | 6% | 6% |
Number of excess deaths by ONS | 187,998 | 76,169 | 52,506 | 32,946 | 26,377 |
% higher than expected | 10% | 21% | 11% | 6% | 6% |
Source: OHID and ONS
Notes:
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to introduce the concept of compassionate healthcare across all NHS services in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Compassionate healthcare is expected of all services within the National Health Service in England. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) provides regulatory oversight by assessing service providers on whether services are safe, effective, responsive, well-led and caring. For caring, CQC assesses a service provider on whether staff involve and treat patients with compassion, kindness, dignity, and respect.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 awareness of Op RESTORE procedures among GPs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Access to Op RESTORE is by general practitioner (GP) referral, therefore it is vital that there is awareness of the service in primary care. There are direct links between Op RESTORE and the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Veteran Friendly Accreditation Scheme, with accredited practices receiving information on the bespoke veterans’ services, such as Op RESTORE and Op COURAGE, including how to refer to them. To date, over 75% of primary care networks have at least one GP practice that is accredited as veteran friendly. In addition, the service is promoted through the Royal College of General Practitioners clinical toolkits and the Op COURAGE service.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage people to become blood donors.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Since September 2021, the science relating to blood, organ and stem cell donation is taught as part of the secondary school curriculum in England, aimed at promoting awareness in young people. NHS Blood and Transplant use a range of media, marketing activity, donor and patient case studies, partnerships and engagement with faith organisations to raise awareness. Its Community Investment Scheme committed £400,000 to support 35 grassroot, community and faith-based organisations to increase awareness, understanding and behaviour change.
NHS Blood and Transplant is also diversifying the donor base, in particular, increasing donors of black heritage.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 improve access to NHS dentistry in (a) Morley and Outwood constituency and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in West Yorkshire.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 increase the levels of cancer diagnosis in (a) the Morley and Outwood constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Between March 2020 and July 2021, there were 3.13 million urgent referrals and over 760,000 people receiving cancer treatment
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance is leading on improving cancer diagnosis and outcomes for its local population, including Morley and Outwood. The Alliance is working with its local system to ensure that there is sufficient diagnostic and treatment capacity in place to meet cancer needs, introducing new pathways and initiatives including Rapid Diagnostic Centres (RDCs) and the Faster Diagnosis Standard. A new test to identify people at highest risk of oesophageal cancer is also being launched across West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance. Cytosponge can be swallowed in order to detect Barrett’s Oesophagus or pre-cancerous cells in the oesophagus, as a COVID-safe alternative to endoscopy.
Public Health England and NHS England and NHS Improvement are running a campaign, ’Help us help you’ to raise awareness of general symptoms of cancer and encourage people experiencing persistent symptoms to contact their general practitioner. in 2021/22 to tackle the elective backlog, from which cancer patients will benefit. This is being supported by £325 million of investment in National Health Service diagnostics. In July 2021, the NHS announced a further £20 million for Cancer Alliances to accelerate cancer diagnosis and enable management of high referral volumes. NHS England and NHS Improvement are prioritising delivery of NHS Long Term Plan commitments such as increasing diagnostic capacity and early diagnosis and survival rates through RDCs. As of June 2021, there were 102 RDCs across hospitals in England, compared to 12 in March 2020.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 non-Halal and Kosher meat options in hospitals.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The 2020 Hospital Food Review and expert panel is now in place and a programme of work has commenced to implement its recommendations. This will include the sourcing of food.