Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
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 (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment and (c) ongoing care for patients with endometriosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health, including endometriosis diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing care. It is unacceptable that women can wait so long for an endometriosis diagnosis, and we have already taken action to address this.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) updated their guideline on endometriosis in November 2024 to make firmer recommendations on referral and investigations, and this will help women receive a diagnosis and effective treatment faster.
Research has led to new treatments being made available, including the NICE approval of two pills to treat endometriosis this year, namely Relugolix and Linzagolix. Both are estimated to help approximately 1,000 women with severe endometriosis for whom other treatment options haven’t been effective.
Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Department has commissioned several studies focused on endometriosis diagnosis, treatment, and patient experience. At present, the NIHR is funding five active research awards into endometriosis totalling an investment of approximately £5.5 million. A further £2.3 million award on the effectiveness of pain management for endometriosis is due to commence in March 2026.
We are expanding the number of dedicated and protected surgical hubs, of which gynaecology procedures are a key offering.
As announced in September, we will establish an “online hospital”, NHS Online, which will give people on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. Menstrual problems that may be a sign of several conditions, including endometriosis, will be among the conditions available for referral to NHS Online from 2027.
NHS England is also updating the service specification for severe endometriosis which is due to be published in due course. This will improve the standards of care for women with severe endometriosis by ensuring specialist endometriosis services have access to the most up-to-date evidence and advice.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
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 potential implications for his Department's policies of the analysis by Age UK on A&E wait times, published on 21 January 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Age UK’s analysis reinforces the need to reduce crowding, tackle the longest waits and corridor care, and improve care for older people, all priorities for the Government.
Through the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan and the NHS Medium Term Planning Framework, we are expanding urgent community response and same day care, improving hospital flow and strengthening services for frail and older people to ensure they receive timely, appropriate care in the right setting. We are also committed to tackling corridor care and will soon start publishing data on its prevalence for the first time, following work by NHS England with trusts since 2024 to put in place new reporting arrangements. This data will help to drive improvement and transparency. Where corridor care cannot be avoided, we have published updated guidance to support trusts to deliver it safely, ensuring dignity and privacy is maintained to reduce impacts on patients and staff.
NHS England is also running the National Frailty Improvement Collaborative, which is focussed on testing and learning how to deliver evidence-based, frailty attuned care and shift appropriate care from hospital to community settings. This work will generate insights to inform national policy and planning and will improve outcomes for older people living with frailty.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing primary legislation to guarantee the right for every person in (a) care and (b) health settings to have at least one essential care supporter.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises how important maintaining meaningful contact with loved ones and other essential care supporters is for the health and wellbeing of residents in care homes and patients in hospitals or hospices.
In April 2025, the Department launched a review of the effectiveness of Care Quality Commission Regulation 9A: Visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices, to consider whether it has been effective in meeting its objectives.
The review considered the experiences of those receiving care, their families and loved ones, providers, and health experts, as well as information from the Care Quality Commission, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, and other United Kingdom nations.
The Department is committed to publishing the outcome of the review as soon as possible.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his proposed timetable is for publishing the Government review of CQC regulation 9A.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises how important maintaining meaningful contact with loved ones and other essential care supporters is for the health and wellbeing of residents in care homes and patients in hospitals or hospices.
In April 2025, the Department launched a review of the effectiveness of Care Quality Commission Regulation 9A: Visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices, to consider whether it has been effective in meeting its objectives.
The review considered the experiences of those receiving care, their families and loved ones, providers, and health experts, as well as information from the Care Quality Commission, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, and other United Kingdom nations.
The Department is committed to publishing the outcome of the review as soon as possible.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
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 the (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of kidney disease.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established a renal Clinical Reference Group to deliver change across the NHS to accelerate improvements in diagnosis and treatment for people living with kidney disease.
NHS England’s regional renal clinical networks, of which there are eight commissioned across England, have established workstreams. These workstreams work with commissioned providers to develop transformation programmes, to reduce the number of patients progressing through the stages of chronic kidney disease, supporting improved patient outcomes.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
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 (a) operational risk and (b) physical demands of Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) personnel within NHS ambulance services; and whether he has plans to review the current pension and retirement framework for HART staff alongside other uniformed emergency services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) provide National Health Service care in high-risk environments, guided by national Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response standards. Operational risks are managed through a nationally consistent safe system of work, including Standard Operating Procedures, risk assessments and specialist training. Each ambulance trust supplements these with local risk assessments. Physical demands are addressed through national recruitment standards and mandatory six-monthly Physical Competency Assessments, with restrictions and support if standards are not met. NHS England commissions the Resilience Emergency Capabilities Unit to maintain standards and deliver specialist training.
The NHS Pension Scheme is designed to reward lifelong service to the NHS and is considered exceptionally generous. The Department considers that the current pension arrangements reflect the physical and operational demands on HART staff.
The scheme has many flexible retirement options to allow staff to retire sooner than normal pension age, with pensions reduced accordingly to account for the fact they are paid for longer. Even when taken years before Normal Pension Age, an NHS Pension can provide for a comfortable living and gives exceptional value to staff.
For those facing severe ill-health, the scheme allows for ill-health retirement at any age without a reduction in pension benefits. Additionally, members can access the Early Retirement Reduction Buy Out option, which enables retirement up to three years earlier without a reduction to benefits, with costs sometimes shared by ambulance service employers.
Aligning the NHS Pension Scheme with those of other emergency services, such as police and fire, would require higher contributions from all NHS staff. There are no plans at present to risk pension affordability for NHS staff or to equalise the normal pension ages of all emergency workforces.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women in Liverpool Walton have been referred to NHS services in connection with PIP implants since 2011.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry (BCIR), set up in 2016, collects all implant data, and explant data where possible.
Practically, it is always difficult and often impossible to identify a model and product code on an explant. If explanted devices, or patients undergoing explant, cannot be linked to data collected at time of implant, then this often reduces explant data to 'patient, surgeon, location, date'. This in turn makes it impossible to monitor trends in explant/failure.
NHS England is in the process of clarifying and mandating the detail required in the BCIR and other device-related collections.
This will place a greater responsibility on trusts to either identify a device at the point of explant, or to identify the device from internal trust records created during the same patient's implant procedure. This will only be possible if the implant and explant are performed at the same trust. It is then the intention of NHS England to provide the same matching service for implant/explant where the trusts differ.
This solution will, when implemented, give a full, proactive picture of device longevity/risk, for the purposes of research and surveillance, alongside the existing ability to identify patients affected by a device recall notice.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
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 increase funding for research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the final delivery plan, the Department has taken actions to strengthen research capacity and capability in relation to myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The level of research funding is determined by the quantity and quality of proposals that are recommended for support through the competitive process through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funding committees.
The actions announced in the final delivery plan include a research showcase event, a new funding opportunity for a development award focussed on evaluating repurposed pharmaceutical interventions, and the announcement of new funded studies in health and care services, research infrastructure, and capacity-building.
We are determined to accelerate progress in the treatment and management of ME/CFS and will continue working with the ME/CFS community to identify and address barriers to research. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including ME/CFS. Research funding is available, and applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms exist to support waste-reduction trials with NHS trusts.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are always looking at ways of reducing waste and increasing efficiency. NHS England has had many discussions with National Health Service trusts on the reduction, elimination, and reuse of single-use polypropylene curtains, and have published best practice with regards to safe and sustainable management of healthcare waste.
In addition, the Department has published the Design for Life Roadmap, a new strategy to transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology (medtech) products towards a functioning circular system by 2045. This means designing, procuring, and processing medtech products in a way that maximises reuse, remanufacture, and recycling, thus preserving their value for as long as possible. The document sets out a plan of 30 actions to deliver the 2045 vision, which involve:
The Design for Life Roadmap is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-for-life-roadmap
As part of its work, the Design for Life programme maintains a list of products where circular alternatives are already available, and, for those with the highest potential benefits, explores means to accelerate adoption across the NHS. Ward curtains are on this product list, where a dedicated group, including procurement and clinical experts, are working to explore how the adoption of reusable versions can be supported.
With regards to trials, the Design for Life programme has commissioned several pilots within NHS trusts to explore safe transitions from single-use to reusables, where the results have been published and cascaded among the NHS community. Furthermore, NHS England has developed and deployed an Innovation Portal to help document, evaluate, test, and deploy innovations in waste management across the NHS in England.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has had discussions with NHS trusts on the potential reuse of polypropylene ward curtains.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are always looking at ways of reducing waste and increasing efficiency. NHS England has had many discussions with National Health Service trusts on the reduction, elimination, and reuse of single-use polypropylene curtains, and have published best practice with regards to safe and sustainable management of healthcare waste.
In addition, the Department has published the Design for Life Roadmap, a new strategy to transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology (medtech) products towards a functioning circular system by 2045. This means designing, procuring, and processing medtech products in a way that maximises reuse, remanufacture, and recycling, thus preserving their value for as long as possible. The document sets out a plan of 30 actions to deliver the 2045 vision, which involve:
The Design for Life Roadmap is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-for-life-roadmap
As part of its work, the Design for Life programme maintains a list of products where circular alternatives are already available, and, for those with the highest potential benefits, explores means to accelerate adoption across the NHS. Ward curtains are on this product list, where a dedicated group, including procurement and clinical experts, are working to explore how the adoption of reusable versions can be supported.
With regards to trials, the Design for Life programme has commissioned several pilots within NHS trusts to explore safe transitions from single-use to reusables, where the results have been published and cascaded among the NHS community. Furthermore, NHS England has developed and deployed an Innovation Portal to help document, evaluate, test, and deploy innovations in waste management across the NHS in England.