Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 impact of the uprating of benefits on the Minimum Income Guarantee rates.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The minimum income guarantee (MIG) rates are reviewed annually, with a review of the rates for the next financial year currently ongoing. Following the last review, the MIG was increased in line with inflation from 6 April 2022. The rates for 23-24 will be published in a Local Authority Circular.
There has been no specific discussion with Cabinet colleagues on the impact of the MIG on the living standards and quality of life of disabled people, and no specific assessment has been made of the impact of the level of the MIG on disabled people and local authority budgets.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 improve the (a) performance of and (b) the patient experience at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are working with the National Health Service, the Care Quality Commission and local partners to ensure high quality patient outcomes at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. The local system has been assessing how mental health delivery might operate in future and how services should be configured, with options for improving service delivery.
I will be hosting a meeting with Norfolk and Suffolk MPs and National Health Service system partners on 12th December to discuss the improvement work that they have been taking to improve services at the Trust.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 move patients from hospital into social care settings in order to reduce backlogs and delayed discharge in (a) Norfolk and (b) England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is providing £500 million to reduce delays in discharges from hospital to social care, which will be distributed to local authorities and integrated care boards (ICBs). The allocations were published on 16 November 2022 and are available at the following link:
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 reduce ambulance response times in (a) Norfolk and (b) England.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England has allocated an additional £150 million for the ambulance service in 2022/23, with £20 million to upgrade the ambulance fleet in each year to 2024/25, including in Norfolk.
The National Health Service will increase capacity by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds to improve patient flow through hospital and reduce waiting times transferring ambulance patients to accident and emergency departments. This is in addition to a £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund to support the National Discharge Taskforce to reduce delayed discharges to care settings, increase bed capacity and improve patient flow through hospital. NHS England is also providing targeted support to some hospitals facing the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients into the care of hospitals, to identify short and longer-term interventions to reduce delays.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 reduce (a) ambulance handover times and (b) ambulance service lost hours at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England has allocated an additional £150 million for the ambulance service in 2022/23, with £20 million to upgrade the ambulance fleet in each year to 2024/25, including in Norfolk.
The National Health Service will increase capacity by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds to improve patient flow through hospital and reduce waiting times transferring ambulance patients to accident and emergency departments. This is in addition to a £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund to support the National Discharge Taskforce to reduce delayed discharges to care settings, increase bed capacity and improve patient flow through hospital. NHS England is also providing targeted support to some hospitals facing the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients into the care of hospitals, to identify short and longer-term interventions to reduce delays.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 improve access to GPs within the two-week appointment guideline for patients who prefer face to face appointments or are unable to use online forms (a) in Norfolk and (b) nationally.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Norfolk.
NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made towards publishing data on the number of appointments each GP practice in England is delivering and how long people wait between booking and receiving an appointment.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We expect this data to published with monthly general practice appointment data on 24 November 2022.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the number of dentists taking on NHS patients (a) nationally and (b) in Norwich North constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Norwich North. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Norwich North.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 improve access to NHS dentists in Norwich North constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Norwich North. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Norwich North.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to help ensure the accuracy of dental listings with availability on the NHS website.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In July 2022, we announced improvements to the National Health Service dental system, including a requirement for dentists to update information at NHS.UK at least every 90 days. Compliance will be monitored on the number of dentists updating this availability quarterly through NHS dental contracts.