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 reduce waiting time for elective surgeries for people in (a) the Morley and Outwood constituency and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department is taking steps to reduce waiting times for elective surgeries across England, including in West Yorkshire, and £1 billion has been made available this year to the National Health Service (NHS) to increase activity and tackle waiting lists.
Morley and Outwood constituency is covered by the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Care System (ICS), which brings together NHS providers and commissioners, local councils and other partners to make improvements to health and care. The number of outpatient appointments provided has already returned to 2019 levels.
Partners in the ICS are taking a range of actions to further support elective recovery, including:
- Ensuring good communication with people who are on the waiting list;
- Implementing shared referral management and offering advice and guidance to help reduce the number of people waiting for treatment;
- Ensuring that hospitals are supporting each other to reduce pressures, providing mutual aid where necessary and delivering the least complex procedures as quickly as possible;
- Making use of independent sector capacity;
- Continuing to transform and modernise services;
- Focusing on achieving best practice flow of patients through hospitals to maximise the number of beds available.
The ICS is also working closely with partners across the whole of the North East and Yorkshire NHS region to support these recovery actions.
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 he has taken to increase access to NHS dentists for people in the Morley and Outwood constituency.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Morley and Outwood was one of 18 constituencies across Yorkshire and the Humber that received additional funding from NHS England and NHS Improvement as part of the region’s Access Scheme, which has been extended until the end of March 2022. NHS England and NHS Improvement is currently evaluating the model and considering the most effective way to support practices to improve access for patients, within the funding available.
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 ensure that people with a phobia of needles will be made aware of when a version of a covid-19 vaccine which does not require needles is approved for use.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department will ensure that a comprehensive announcement is made if a COVID-19 vaccine that can be delivered without the use of a needle is approved.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency continues to monitor and engage with developers and producers of both currently approved and new COVID-19 vaccines and offers scientific advice on new technical developments. We are unable to comment on products that are not approved for use in the United Kingdom due to commercial and market sensitivities surrounding the approval processes.
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 help ensure that patients at hospitals can access information as to how the meat they are served in hospital meals is slaughtered.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This is a matter for local National Health Service trusts. The NHS is required to meet the requirements of the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services which require all food served to meet United Kingdom legislative standards for animal welfare or equivalent standards.
The Independent Hospital Food Review, published in October 2020, made recommendations for improving hospital food for patients and an expert panel is now in place to implement these recommendations. This includes how food is best provided to patients given their medical conditions, personal or cultural preferences and religious requirements. This sub-group will include representatives from religious organisations.
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 help improve the chances of survival for babies born prematurely.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Maternity Safety Ambition includes a target to reduce the pre-term birth rate from 8% to 6% by 2025. ‘Saving Babies Lives Version Two: A care bundle for reducing perinatal mortality’ includes an element to reduce the number of pre-term births and optimise care when pre-term delivery cannot be prevented. This includes greater intervention on prediction, prevention and preparation for mothers and babies at risk of pre-term birth. The development of specialist pre-term birth clinics across England to care for women with heightened risk of pre-term birth, is also outlined in the care bundle. The establishment of pre-term birth clinics has been widely promoted across all local maternity systems, provider trusts and clinical networks.
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 encourage members of the public to undertake first aid training.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England and NHS Improvement in partnership with St John Ambulance are working together to create a national network of community advocates to champion the importance of first aid, training 60,000 people that will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028.
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 ensure that new variants of covid-19 in the UK are identified as quickly as possible.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
New technology to rapidly detect new COVID-19 mutations is being deployed in NHS Test and Trace laboratories. Genotype assay testing is accelerating identification where a positive COVID-19 sample contains a mutation indicative of a known variant of concern and will be used in addition to standard testing decreasing the interval from approximately two weeks to two days.
Genotype assays complement existing surveillance work that uses genomic sequencing to look for variants in positive samples. Genomic sequencing surveillance will continue to detect and monitor how COVID-19 changes over time into new variants, by identifying new mutations in the viral genome. Where new variants or mutations are found, the technology can be adapted to track the variants of most concern.
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 help reduce the NHS backlog of medical procedures in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have made £1 billion available this year to the National Health Service to increase activity and tackle waiting lists. Trusts in West Yorkshire can access this funding as they increase their activity levels. In May, the NHS announced a £160 million accelerator initiative to rapidly trial further innovations and interventions to boost activity. The findings will be shared across all regions, providing a blueprint for elective recovery. There is support at a national and regional level for all systems, including the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, to support them to reduce their waiting lists and deliver care to patients.
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, with reference to the Answer of 23 April 2021 to Question 181350 on abortion: health services, whether follow-up calls regarding complications are also only a matter for individual abortion providers; and whether there is a mechanism to guarantee that such calls are made.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Abortion providers will discuss possible complications with the woman during the consultation and women will be provided with written advice and information about possible symptoms, including those which would necessitate urgent review. Women, should they have any concerns, have access to a 24 hour telephone helpline which specialises in post abortion support and care.
Follow up calls regarding complications are a matter for individual abortion providers. There is no mechanism to guarantee that proactive follow up calls are made to all patients.
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 his Department will take steps to promote a whole-health approach in the provision of health services to domestic abuse victims as proposed by the SafeLives charity.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Health professionals are trained to spot the signs of domestic abuse and those at risk, referring to further support and sharing information appropriately with colleagues and other organisations. All National Health Service staff undertake mandatory safeguarding training which includes focus on domestic abuse. The Department continues to work with partners to support integrated care systems in embedding violence prevention and reduction across local health, social care and public health systems. The Department has overseen a £2 million domestic abuse pathfinder project, producing a free online toolkit and supporting the development of a model health response to domestic abuse.