Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) adults and (b) children in (i) Coventry North East constituency and (ii) Coventry that (A) are not registered with an NHS dentist and (B) have been unable to access NHS dental treatment in each of the last two years; and what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in these areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
No specific estimate has been made as the information requested is not collected centrally.
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 Coventry. We have also introduced improvements to the National Health Service dental system which came into effect in November 2022. This will ensure that dentists are more fairly remunerated for NHS treatment of patients with higher care needs, improve access and make the NHS dental contract more attractive to dentists. Dentists are also legally required to update practice information for patients at NHS.UK at least every 90 days.
NHS England is holding further discussions on the NHS dental system with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders and additional reforms are planned in 2023.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of NHS workforce vacancies in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps he is taking to fill such vacancies in those areas.
Answered by Will Quince
The information on vacancies in Coventry and the West Midlands is not collected in the format requested. However, as of June 2022, there were 25,225 full time equivalent (FTE) vacancies in the Midlands and 132,139 FTE vacancies in England. Local National Health Service trusts are responsible for managing staffing levels and recruiting the appropriate health professionals required to meet local service need.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 increase the number of NHS dentists accepting new patients in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
There are no geographical restrictions on which practice a patient may attend. NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre or NHS 111 can also advise patients seeking urgent care. NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Coventry and the West Midlands. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care.
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: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the number of missed GP appointments in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The information requested is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 mental health services for young people in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
No formal assessment has been made. However, we monitor access to services for children and young people under 18 years old accessing support from National Health Service-funded community services through the NHS mental health dashboard at a national, regional and integrated care system level.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the average waiting time for children and adolescent mental health services in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting lists for those services in those areas.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
No estimate has been made as there is no universal waiting time standard across all children and young people’s mental health services. Waiting times data are available for services where a waiting time standard is in place. These include access to early intervention in psychosis and children and young people’s eating disorders, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard/
In February 2022, NHS England published the outcome of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. This includes for children, young people and their families or carers presenting to community-based mental health services to receive care within four weeks from referral. We are working with NHS England on on the next steps following this consultation.
In addition, the NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to enable an additional 345,000 children and young people to receive National Health Service-funded mental health support. This includes eight mental health support teams either in place or planned for primary, secondary and further education settings in the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the average waiting times for GP appointments in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last three years.
Answered by James Morris
No specific estimate has been made as the information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to support health and care staff in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England with the rising cost of living.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government has accepted the recommendations made by the independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs) for National Health Service staff. The PRBs considered factors such as the cost of living and inflation, recruitment, retention and morale and value for the taxpayer.
More than one million staff under the national Agenda for Change contract in England will benefit from an increase in pay of at least £1,400, backdated to April 2022, including Coventry and the West Midlands. This is in addition to the 3% increase received in 2021.
The Government has provided support for households including reducing fuel duty and taxes for the lowest-paid workers on Universal Credit and raising the threshold for National Insurance contributions.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps his Department is taking to help tackle health inequalities in (i) Coventry North East constituency and (ii) Coventry.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Through NHS England, allocations to National Health Service integrated care boards (ICBs), including Coventry and Warwickshire ICB, are adjusted for health inequalities and unmet need in the weighted capitation formula, which was recently reviewed by the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. ICB allocations were published in April 2022 and are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/allocation-of-resources-2022-23/
In 2022/23, Coventry City Council will receive over £23.2 million from the Public Health Grant. In using the Grant, local authorities must have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities.
While there are no specific projects in Coventry North East constituency and Coventry, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ West Midlands regional office has provided support to Coventry City Council on programmes which contribute to the reduction of health inequalities. This includes providing evidence and intelligence and sharing best practice to inform initiatives to tackle infant mortality, homelessness, migrant health issues and access to housing, as well as initiatives to improve access to services for vulnerable and hard to reach groups.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps his Department is taking to help reduce waiting times for people transferring into care settings in (i) Coventry North East constituency, (ii) Coventry, (iii) the West Midlands and (iv) England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The Department has published hospital discharge guidance for local areas which sets out how discharge services should be planned and implemented. Local areas can select the appropriate funding mechanisms, such as the Better Care Fund, to support timely hospital discharge. In 2021/22, Coventry County Council spent £15.3 million on discharge-related programmes to improve transfers of care and patient flow, through the Better Care Fund. This expenditure includes £1.3 million on intermediate care and £13 million to support implementation of the Discharge to Assess/Home First model.
A National Hospital Discharge Taskforce has been established to address delayed discharges, which has launched a national 100-day discharge challenge in all hospital trusts. In the West Midlands, health and care partners are implementing 10 interventions to deliver this challenge, building on existing initiatives such as criteria-led discharge, ward processes and improving system-level demand and capacity. NHS England is providing support to integrated care systems in the region, including Coventry and Warwickshire, Black Country and West Birmingham, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, and Birmingham and Solihull. This will include regional masterclasses to increase engagement on a range of discharge-related matters.