Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to help reduce obesity in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Rt hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford on 19 December 2022 to Question 109450.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to help ensure that in-person GP consultations are the default format offered by practices.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not plan to make in person consultations the default format because general practitioners (GP) practices should be determining the most appropriate appointment mode for their patients based on clinical needs and patients’ preferences and access needs.
NHS England guidance is clear that GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. Alongside face-to-face appointments, remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients. Practices should offer a range of access routes, and patients unable to access remote general practice consultations for any reason should be offered an alternative appointment mode. We expect patients to experience the same high quality of care regardless of how they access their GP surgery.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 that cancer treatment will not be affected by the proposed nursing strikes in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England will work with providers, professional bodies and trade unions to agree the safe level of staffing during any industrial action. The Royal College of Nursing has announced that chemotherapy treatments will be exempt from strike action. Hospitals will ensure that emergency and urgent treatments will be prioritised and appointments and operations should continue unless there is a reason to reschedule for patient safety.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 deploy radiotherapy machines to new Community Diagnostic Centres.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no current plans to include radiotherapy services within community diagnostic hubs, as radiotherapy is used in the treatment of cancer rather than as a diagnostic test.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of re-establishing a Children's accident and emergency service in Southport Hospital.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England is working with Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and National Health Service commissioners to develop plans for emergency services for children at the Ormskirk site. Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust is undertaking a review of the workforce in emergency care pathways, including the children’s emergency service at Ormskirk.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 diagnostic services in Southport constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
A new community diagnostic centre in the Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust area is due to open in January 2023. In 2022/23, capital funding has been provided for additional endoscopy equipment and an additional acute computerised tomography scanner at the Trust. This will increase capacity, reduce waiting times and the proportion of patients waiting more than six weeks.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 adequacy of access to MR-Guided Focussed Ultrasound for Essential Tremor treatment in England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Transcranial magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy is recommended for the treatment of medication refractory essential tremor, in patients ineligible for deep brain stimulation. NHS England estimates that up to 150 patients per year in England meet the inclusion criteria. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust provide this treatment and can meet the demand.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of TV service costs in hospitals for low-income patients.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on tackling backlogs in NHS provision in the North-West as a result of the outbreak of covid-19.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In the North West, the number of people waiting two years or more for treatment has been reduced by 86% between January and June 2022.
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ commits the National Health Service to deliver nine million additional treatments and diagnostic procedures over the next three years and approximately 30% more elective activity by 2024/25, compared to pre-pandemic levels. We have allocated more than £8 billion to support the delivery plan, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment his Department has made of Southport’s stroke services to others in its region; and what steps his Department is taking to help improve stroke services in Southport.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board has assessed stroke services in the North Mersey area, including Southport. It has assessed that stroke services within the region do not currently meet best practice guidelines for providing the highest quality care or maximise the effectiveness of the specialist stroke workforce.
On 4 August 2022, a proposal for a comprehensive stroke centre on the Aintree Hospital site was approved, to be located with specialist services provided by the Walton Centre and post 72 hours care provided at either Aintree, Broadgreen or Southport. This clinically-led service has been developed over the last five years and is based on national evidence for improved outcomes for patients when hyper acute stroke services are centralised.
Additional investment is also planned for Southport and Ormskirk hospital to care for stroke patients who do not need to travel to Aintree Hospital or who return to their local hospital after receiving hyper-acute stroke treatment at Aintree.