Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens 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 (a) diagnostic processes and (b) subsequent support for people with Tourette's syndrome; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and funding. Decisions on improving the diagnostic process and support for people with Tourette’s syndrome will vary, with each CCG taking into consideration attributes of its local population to assess the level of need.
Health Education England is increasing the number of trained clinical psychologists, supporting a 60% expansion in the clinical psychology training intake over the past two years. Clinical psychologists are well placed to develop new and improved services and undertake bespoke development to support the needs of patients with Tourette’s syndrome.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens 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 increase NHS dental care provision across (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) the North West and (c) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to increase levels of National Health Service dental services. Dental practices are now being asked to deliver at least 65% of contracted units of dental activity between October and December 2021 in order to receive full income support or an increase of 5%. NHS England and NHS Improvement will keep activity thresholds under review in line with potential infection prevention requirement revisions.
Capacity for urgent dental care has been increased in St Helens with an additional 35 urgent care appointments available each week. Across the North West, 164 urgent dental care centres have been maintained to ensure access to urgent dental treatment. Commissioning teams in the North West are working with their local dental networks to monitor overall system performance, including dental access and demand figures.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
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 invest in specialist Tourette’s syndrome services and care across (a) St Helens Clinical Commissioning Group area, (b) the North West region and (c) England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), through local community paediatric services or child and adolescent mental health services, with the pathways varying across the country. These services will be appropriate for the majority of children and young people with Tourette’s syndrome.
For those requiring specialist support, there are specialised tertiary services across the country with focused multidisciplinary teams assessing and supporting children with tics, Tourette’s syndrome and motor stereotypies and their families. The potential commissioning of a local tertiary service for tics and Tourette’s is under review by CCGs across the North West and NHS England and NHS Improvement.
NHS St Helens CCG has tasked its local providers to review the needs of children and young people from St Helens who have been discharged from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital’s Tourette’s service in the preceding six months and has temporarily invested £30,000 to support this.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department invested through the National Institute for Health Research into research on Tourette’s syndrome in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
Since 2010, £3.3 million has been invested into research on Tourette’s syndrome through the National Institute for Health Research.
The following table shows spending on research on Tourette’s syndrome in each financial year since 2010.
Year | Research spend |
2010/11 | £0 |
2011/12 | £149,296 |
2012/13 | £281,996 |
2013/14 | £356,558 |
2014/15 | £204,102 |
2015/16 | £197,677 |
2016/17 | £134,129 |
2017/18 | £313,302 |
2018/19 | £612,658 |
2019/20 | £669,635 |
2020/21 | £362,080 |
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of Health Education England’s clinical psychology intake has opted to undertake a specialist placement focusing on Tourette’s syndrome in each of the last five years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
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 number of patients waiting for (a) routine and (b) urgent dental care across the St Helens Clinical Commissioning Group area.
Answered by Jo Churchill
NHS England and NHS Improvement have confirmed that within the St Helens Clinical Commissioning Group area, there are no patients on a waiting list for urgent treatment. No estimate has been made of the number of patients waiting for routine appointments as this is managed at individual practice level.