Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
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 effectiveness of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy in helping to prevent men aged between 45 and 49 years old from taking their own lives.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Suicide Prevention Strategy highlights men, and especially middle-aged and young men, as a group at high risk of suicide. In September 2018, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the final suicide registrations data for 2018, which showed a significant increase amongst men, following four consecutive years of decreases. These latest figures reinforce why suicide prevention continues to be a priority for this Government.
Experts are clear that we need more data to be able to draw firm conclusions, and we have set up a working group with the ONS, Professor Louis Appleby and other academics to consider the data in more detail.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
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 ensure sustainable workforce planning for GPs.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We recognise general practice is under pressure nationally and that is why we have committed to growing the workforce by 6,000 more doctors in general practice and 6,000 more primary care professionals. This is in addition to the 20,000 primary care professionals NHS England is providing funding towards, and other commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan, with primary and community care set to receive at least £4.5 billion more a year by 2023/24, in real terms. The five-year General Practitioner Contract will provide greater financial security and certainty for practices to plan ahead. It will also see billions of extra pounds of investment for improved access, expanded services at local practices, the development of Primary Care Networks, launched in July 2019, and longer appointments for patients who need them.
The full People Plan, published later this year, will set out a broader strategy for a sustainable general practice workforce and how we will meet our commitments through both recruitment and retention programmes.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of elderly people to engage with NHS digital services.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We are committed to ensuring that all those using the National Health Service have fair and equitable access to high quality, effective healthcare services that are responsive to all patients’ needs.
Digital tools, such as the NHS App, which have been designed to be useable by all age groups. They can support older people to manage repeat prescriptions, book and cancel appointments and view their medical record.
In July 2019, we published the Digital Inclusion Guide for Health and Social Care to help support local commissioners and designers ensure that services delivered digitally are as inclusive as possible to meet the needs of all members of the population.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made on the adequacy of the availability of cervical cancer screenings for women with physical disabilities.
Answered by Jo Churchill
General practitioner practices are required to ensure that their premises are suitable for the delivery of essential services and that they are sufficient to meet the reasonable needs of its patients, including those with disabilities. This involves making any necessary reasonable adjustments; making alternative arrangements, such as referral to a specialist screening provider; or undertaking the procedures in another setting that is more suitable given any limitations to a patient’s mobility. Where a patient requires specialist equipment, clinical staff will ensure that patients have access to its use in a safe environment.
NHS England is continuously investing in initiatives to help ensure equality of access to screening and, through the Section 7A public health functions agreement, aims to improve public health outcomes and reduce inequalities.
Professor Sir Mike Richards’ review of Adult Screening programmes was published on 16 October 2019. As part of this review, it was recommended that good practice on physical disabilities is shared to enable this to be adopted more widely. The Department, NHS England and Public Health England is considering the recommendations from Professor Richards’ report and will publish an implementation plan in spring 2020.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish a Green Paper on adult social care.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Putting social care on a sustainable footing, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society. As the Prime Minister has said, the Government will bring forward a plan for social care this year.
The Government will seek to build cross-party consensus and will outline next steps shortly.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
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 Department's policy to increase the level of funding for the early stage of clinical trials of dementia medicines.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government remains strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and the United Kingdom research community is playing a significant role in the global effort to find a cure or a major disease-modifying treatment by 2025.
The Government’s 2020 Challenge contained the commitment to spend £300 million on dementia research over the five years to March 2020. This commitment was delivered a year early with £341 million spent on dementia research over the four years to 31 March 2019. We are currently working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia at all stages of the translation pathway, including on early-phase clinical trials.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of elderly people to engage with the NHS App.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The NHS App launched following a period of testing from September 2018-January 2019, and now has over 250,000 registered users.
The NHS app has been designed over many iterations to be as usable by all age groups. Over 65s have been included in mixed method sessions including in depth interviews and usability testing for every feature of the app produced to date, and the app overall.
Over 10% of the total users are above 65 years old. As of 27 January 2020, the total number of users above 65 years old is:
Age group | Total Number of Users |
Over 65 | 24,307 |
Over 75 | 4,674 |
Over 90 | 181 |
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of Breast Cancer Now in its report entitled The Unsurvivors, published in October 2019, that (a) one in six respondents diagnosed with secondary breast cancer said they didn’t feel confident they would have access to the most appropriate drug treatments in the future and (b) 25 per cent of respondents said they had not seen a clinical nurse specialist.
Answered by Jo Churchill
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals to require food outlets to display food hygiene ratings.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is operated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in partnership with local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Food businesses covered by the scheme are provided with stickers showing their rating. Those in Wales and Northern Ireland are already required by law to display the stickers at their premises, while those in England are encouraged to do so.
The FSA is finalising an evidence-based case for a statutory mandatory display scheme which will be submitted for ministerial consideration and ultimately cross-Government approval.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the availability of flu nasal spray for (a) pre-school and (b) school-aged children in the winter period 2019-20.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Overall this season, sufficient flu nasal spray (a live attenuated influenza vaccine - LAIV) has been procured to ensure that all eligible children who present for vaccination can receive it. Deliveries of LAIV are occurring slightly later this season, compared to previous seasons. Available stocks are being managed closely and Public Health England is working with Astra Zeneca and NHS England and NHS Improvement to ensure that all eligible children get their flu vaccine as soon as possible. Children who have underlying medical conditions that make them more vulnerable to flu will be prioritised by general practitioners in the first instance.