Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that NHS England facilitates the dissemination of the findings of the maternal, newborn and infant clinical outcome review programme delivered by MBRRACE-UK.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The maternal, newborn, and infant clinical outcome review programme, delivered by Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK), forms part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, which is commissioned and managed on behalf of NHS England by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership.
MBRRACE-UK publishes annual data and surveillance reports on their website, and holds a national learning event to disseminate information and audit findings. NHS England supports this approach and reviews all audit recommendations after publication with a range of stakeholders. NHS England’s Three-Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal services also highlights how NHS England will use MBRRACE-UK’s reports to monitor trends and themes at both a national and local level.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to implement the recommendations of MBRRACE-UK's report entitled Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care: Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2019-21, published in October 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The recommendations made in the Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK’s (MBRRACE-UK) report have informed a series of work programmes to improve maternity safety. This includes ongoing work delivered through NHS England's Three-Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services, which sets out how care will be made safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families. This is supported by an additional investment of £186 million a year to improve maternity and neonatal care, compared to 2021, on top of an additional £35 million over three years, from 2024/25 to 2026/27.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions she has had with Skills for Care on levels of take up of their LGBT+ Learning Framework, published in February 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has had no recent discussions around levels of take up of the LGBTQ+ learning framework.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the number of women’s health hubs open on 29 February 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The expansion of women’s health hubs is a priority ambition within the Women’s Health Strategy for England. In October 2022 the Birmingham, RAND and Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Centre’s early evaluation of women’s health hubs identified 13 women's health hubs in England. This evaluation is available at the following link:
We are investing £25 million into women’s health hubs to enable the establishment of at least one women’s health hub in every integrated care system. The funding is being distributed to every integrated care board (ICB), with each ICB receiving £595,000 in total over two years, 2023/24 and 2024/25. ICB plans received in September 2023 indicate that the funding is supporting at least 49 women’s health hubs, which includes the creation of 38 new hubs and the expansion of 11 existing hub models. This funding is intended to show proof of concept to enable ICBs to assess the benefit of hubs and roll out more widely.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women’s health hubs were open on 29 February 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The expansion of women’s health hubs is a priority ambition within the Women’s Health Strategy for England. In October 2022 the Birmingham, RAND and Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Centre’s early evaluation of women’s health hubs identified 13 women's health hubs in England. This evaluation is available at the following link:
We are investing £25 million into women’s health hubs to enable the establishment of at least one women’s health hub in every integrated care system. The funding is being distributed to every integrated care board (ICB), with each ICB receiving £595,000 in total over two years, 2023/24 and 2024/25. ICB plans received in September 2023 indicate that the funding is supporting at least 49 women’s health hubs, which includes the creation of 38 new hubs and the expansion of 11 existing hub models. This funding is intended to show proof of concept to enable ICBs to assess the benefit of hubs and roll out more widely.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of women’s health hubs in reducing waiting times for women’s health (a) diagnoses and (b) treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are investing £25 million into women’s health hubs to support better access to services, improve health outcomes, and reduce unnecessary secondary care referrals. The interim report from the University of Birmingham, RAND, and the Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Centre, named Early evaluation of women’s health hubs and published in October 2022, showed that hubs can ease pressures on secondary care services and gynaecology waiting lists by improving access to care in the community. The report is available at the following link:
Our cost-benefit analysis published in July 2023 used existing evidence to quantify the benefits generated by hubs, which includes improved access to services, improved health outcomes for women, and fewer secondary care referrals. This estimates there will be £5 of benefits for every £1 spent on a hub the size of a primary care network. Further assessments will be made based on reporting from integrated care boards, as their hubs are set up.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 reduce the time taken for endometriosis diagnoses.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Care for menstrual problems including endometriosis is a 2024 priority for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy. We are investing £25 million in establishing women’s health hubs, which will play a key role in improving access to care for menstrual problems such as suspected endometriosis.
Through the NHS Delivery Plan for tackling the COVID-19 related elective care backlog, we are increasing activity through dedicated and protected surgical hubs that conduct planned procedures only. Surgical hubs are focusing on providing high-volume low-complexity surgery such as laparoscopies for suspected endometriosis. As of March 2024, 48 surgical hubs conduct gynaecological procedures.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are playing an important part in tackling the backlogs of people waiting for diagnostic tests, which includes checks, tests, and scans for patients on gynaecological pathways, including those with endometriosis. As of March 2024, there are 155 CDCs open already, and up to 160 set to open by March 2025.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is currently updating its guideline on diagnosing and managing endometriosis, which will provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based recommendations on diagnosing and treating endometriosis. NHS England is also updating the service specification for severe endometriosis, which sets the standards of care expected from National Health Service organisations.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 NHS trusts apply the national sexual safety collaborative.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are informed by NHS England that the application of the safety standards from the national Sexual Safety Collaborative, is decided upon and monitored locally.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 NHS mental health trusts have an inadequate safety rating.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rates health and care providers using five key questions, which are: are services safe; effective; caring; responsive to people’s needs; and well led. CQC has 49 residential and community mental health trusts on its register and of these, one provider, or 2%, is rated as inadequate for CQC’s safety rating.
Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing at least £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024, compared to 2018/19, to expand and transform mental health services in England so that two million more people can get the mental health support that they need.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 mixed wards for inpatient psychiatric care were in use for each year since 2010.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Neither the Department nor NHS England hold the data requested.