Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 the availability of NHS dentists in Huddersfield constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards from April 2023. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to National Health Service dental care, including in Huddersfield, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.
These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022. This includes enabling commissioning of up to 110% of contracted Units of Dental Activities to increase NHS care, fairer remuneration for practices providing complex treatment within current Band 2 treatments and removing barriers around use of staff skills mix in NHS dentistry. We have also worked with the General Dental Council on legislative proposals to allow the regulator greater flexibility to expand the registration options open to international dentists.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place this year.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the levels of delivery of Units of Dental Activity by NHS Dentists in (a) Huddersfield, (b) Kirklees and (c) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The following table shows the number of Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) delivered over the past three financial years for Kirklees and West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). Data for Kirklees includes data for Huddersfield which is not published separately.
Financial year | Kirklees Local Authority | West Yorkshire ICB |
2019/20 | 771,845 | 3,307,858 |
2020/21 | 236,570 | 1,081,539 |
2021/22 | 555,156 | 2,678,102 |
The pandemic is likely to have had an impact on the UDAs delivered for 2019/20 and 2020/21.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to National Health Service dental care in England whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices to support the delivery of commissioned dental activity. These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022. This includes enabling commissioning of up to 110% of contracted UDAs to increase NHS care from December 2022. NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for further reform later this year.
On 29 March 2021, NHS England published a flexible commissioning toolkit for regional commissioners. Flexible commissioning is an element of existing NHS dental contracts that enables UDA to be better targeted towards priority and high needs groups of patients. NHS England is continuing to monitor the use of the arrangements to meet local needs.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the units of dental activity delivered by NHS dentists in (a) Huddersfield, (b) Kirklees and (c) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The following table shows the number of Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) delivered over the past three financial years for Kirklees and West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). Data for Kirklees includes data for Huddersfield which is not published separately.
Financial year | Kirklees Local Authority | West Yorkshire ICB |
2019/20 | 771,845 | 3,307,858 |
2020/21 | 236,570 | 1,081,539 |
2021/22 | 555,156 | 2,678,102 |
The pandemic is likely to have had an impact on the UDAs delivered for 2019/20 and 2020/21.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to National Health Service dental care in England whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices to support the delivery of commissioned dental activity. These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022. This includes enabling commissioning of up to 110% of contracted UDAs to increase NHS care from December 2022. NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for further reform later this year.
On 29 March 2021, NHS England published a flexible commissioning toolkit for regional commissioners. Flexible commissioning is an element of existing NHS dental contracts that enables UDA to be better targeted towards priority and high needs groups of patients. NHS England is continuing to monitor the use of the arrangements to meet local needs.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with arthritis are currently waiting for elective surgery.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The data is not available in the requested format.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 support people with arthritis who are waiting for elective surgery.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
To support the health of people with arthritis while they are waiting for elective treatment, NHS England has worked with Versus Arthritis on their Joint Replacement Support Package, a six point package aimed at local health systems to provide to patients.
The Department has taken steps to assist those waiting for elective treatment and surgery, for instance through patient choice and the My Planned Care platform.
The Government also announced on 24 January 2023 a Major Conditions Strategy, for which an interim report will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 early diagnosis rates for arthritis.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
NHS England is working to help improve early diagnosis rates for arthritis through its Getting It Right First Time rheumatology programme, which is designed to improve the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis. The national report makes a number of recommendations which look to support equitable and consistent access to diagnostic tests.
In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance to support early diagnosis of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, healthcare professionals and commissioners are expected to take them fully into account.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 support the health of people with arthritis while they are waiting for elective treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
To support the health of people with arthritis while they are waiting for elective treatment, NHS England has worked with Versus Arthritis on their Joint Replacement Support Package, a six point package aimed at local health systems to provide to patients.
The Department has taken steps to assist those waiting for elective treatment and surgery, for instance through patient choice and the My Planned Care platform.
The Government also announced on 24 January 2023 a Major Conditions Strategy, for which an interim report will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has discussed uprating social care benefits in line with inflation with MENCAP in the last twelve months.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
There have been no specific discussions. The 2023 Local Authority Circular, published on 9 February, sets out that the rates of the Minimum Income Guarantee will be uprated in line with consumer price index inflation for the financial year 2023/2024.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of longer waiting times for elective surgery on health inequalities.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. However, NHS England in its ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, set out the principles to minimise the impact of waiting long periods of time for treatment on patients, public, National Health Service staff and health inequalities. This includes a focus on equity of access, experience and outcomes for the most deprived.
The plan also committed to developing a Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Dashboard, which measures, monitors, and informs actionable insight to make improvements to narrow health inequalities. The dashboard is available at the following link:
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 the adequate supply of medication to pharmacies in Huddersfield.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has well-established processes to manage and mitigate the small number of supply problems that may arise at any one time due to manufacturing, regulatory or distribution issues. We work closely with manufacturers, all parts of the supply chain, and where needed others including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and NHS England to ensure that deliveries are expedited and future supplies are brought forward to prevent shortages and ensure that any risks to patients are minimised when they do arise.