Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many new NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors will complete training in the next 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department estimates a range of between 19,000 and 22,500 nurses trained in England joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register for the first time in the year to March 2026, based on the 23,240 acceptances to English nursing courses in the 2022 cycle, published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, as part of its undergraduate end of cycle data resources for 2024. These nurses may go on to work in the National Health Service, but also in other settings including social care or for non-NHS providers including some carrying out NHS work.
The numbers of joiners to the General Medical Council (GMC) register who are graduates of education courses in England has been increasing as medical school intakes have been expanded. We estimate between 8,000 and 8,500 doctors will join the GMC register having qualified from English universities during 2025.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) nurse and (b) doctor vacancies there are in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes a compendium of NHS Vacancy Statistics each quarter. The information currently provides four measures of the level of vacancies in the National Health Service, one of which includes the number of medical and registered nursing vacancies reported by NHS trusts to NHS England, which is the most commonly used measure.
Detailed information on the definition of collected data and the available timeseries, along with the measure’s strengths and weaknesses, can be found at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey
Data for the period to March 2025 was published on 29 May 2025.
Due to the complex nature of how NHS vacancy data is defined and collected, all data sources should be treated with a degree of caution.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors are expected to (i) leave and (ii) retire in the next year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold estimates of the number of nurses and doctors expected to leave the National Health Service or retire in the next year.
The Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, to ensure we retain more of our skilled and dedicated staff. NHS England is leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts. This ensures trusts have access to proven retention strategies, data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
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 improve the (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment pathways and (c) levels of clinical awareness of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome in the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of local integrated care boards to work with clinicians, service users, and patient groups to develop services and care pathways that are convenient and that meet the needs of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published a clinical knowledge summary on the clinical management of blackouts and syncope, that provides advice for clinicians in the United Kingdom on best practice in the assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. This was last updated in November 2023, and is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/
General practitioners (GPs) are asked to investigate symptoms to ensure that it is not misdiagnosed. Following referral, patients are treated within National Health Service cardiology and neurology services. Where more specialist advice is required, a referral will be made to an appropriate clinician.
To improve awareness of PoTS amongst healthcare professionals, and specifically GPs, the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential barriers to access to Primary Healthcare in rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring that rural areas have the resources needed to continue serving their patients. To address this, we are increasing capacity in general practices by recruiting more general practitioners (GPs), ensuring the necessary workforce is in place to provide integrated, patient-centred services.
We have invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme which has enabled the recruitment of over 1,500 recently qualified GPs across England since October 2024. This will increase the number of available appointments, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system.
We have also delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources. The new 2025/26 GP Contract includes key reforms to improve access to GPs, including making sure patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of GP surgeries running above capacity on the delivery of health services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2023 GP Patient Survey showed that of the patients who could not get an appointment at their general practice, over one in 10 went to accident and emergency, which has worse outcomes for patients and is more expensive for the taxpayer. To address this, we are seeking to increase capacity and appointment availability in general practice, improving access for patients. For example, we have recruited over 1,500 newly qualified general practitioners through an £82 million investment in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
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 charities who help (a) blind and (b) visually-impaired people.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Health and Wellbeing Alliance is the mechanism through which the Department, NHS England, and the UK Health Security Agency work together with voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector organisations to drive the transformation of the health and care systems, promote equality, address health inequalities, and help people, families, and communities to achieve and maintain wellbeing.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make an updated impact assessment on the postponement of proposed upgrades to North Devon District Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Plan for Implementation, the New Hospital Programme (NHP) review used a range of data to assess and scope schemes, including the North Devon District Hospital scheme. This included assessing each scheme under criteria for mitigated risk, including health deprivation, deliverability, and transformation opportunity. As a result, North Devon is now in Wave 3 of the NHP and is expected to begin construction between 2035 and 2038. Further information on the Plan for Implementation is available at the following link:
Additionally, an equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP, which included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
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 improve the accessibility of health services for (a) blind and (b) partially sighted people in North Cornwall constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, including blind and partially sighted people.
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. To make it easier for disabled people to use health services, there is work underway in NHS England to ensure that staff in health settings know if they need to make reasonable adjustments. This includes rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag, which enables the recording of key information about a patient, and their reasonable adjustment needs, in health records to ensure support can be tailored appropriately.
Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including blind and partially sighted people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
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 patients' (a) blindness and (b) partial sightedness on levels of attendance at (i) GP and (ii) hospital appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no formal assessment of the impact of visual impairment on levels of attendance. However, we are aware of the challenges that visual impairments can present when accessing healthcare services.
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people, including blind and partially sighted people, are not disadvantaged. To make it easier for disabled people to use health services, there is work underway in NHS England to ensure that staff in health settings know if they need to make reasonable adjustments. This includes the development of a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag, which enables the recording of key information about a patient, and their reasonable adjustment needs, in health records to ensure support can be tailored appropriately.
Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers have been expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS). The standard details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including blind and partially sighted people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.