Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent GPs worked in the NHS in England in each financial year since 2009-10.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The information requested is publicly available and can be accessed here:
and
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent district nurses worked in the NHS in England in each financial year since 2009-10.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS England publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. These include staff working for hospital trusts and other core organisations, but excludes staff working for other providers such as in primary care, general practice, or social care. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, the human resources system for the National Health Service. The statistics, including those for district nurses, are available at the following link:
We know that district nurses will also work outside NHS trusts, for other providers of community services. We do not hold data on the number of district nurses working outside the NHS. The Nursing and Midwifery Council publishes data on the number of nurses with district nursing qualifications on the professional register across the United Kingdom, and is available at the following link:
https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
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 access to NHS dentist for people in rural areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The National Health Service contracts with independent dental providers to deliver NHS dental treatment in primary care settings and practices have the flexibility to recruit locally to meet their specific needs.
From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards across England.
‘Our plan for patients’, announced in September 2022, outlined how we will meet oral health needs and make NHS work more attractive to dentists and their teams, including those in rural areas. This included improving the 2006 NHS dental contract to ensure fairer remuneration for practices providing complex treatment, enabling practices to deliver more activity than they are contracted to deliver (up to 110% of contract value), and introducing a minimum Unit of Dental Activity value of £23.
Other measures include working with Health Education England and NHS England to understand how Centres for Dental Development could be delivered to improve access in areas with a shortage in provision, which may include more rural areas.
We are planning additional reforms of the NHS Dental System to be announced later this year, with a separate long-term plan for the NHS workforce, which will include measures to strengthen and build capacity in the NHS dental workforce.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
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 prevent closures of rural dentist practices.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The National Health Service contracts with independent dental providers to deliver NHS dental treatment in primary care settings and practices have the flexibility to recruit locally to meet their specific needs.
From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards across England.
‘Our plan for patients’, announced in September 2022, outlined how we will meet oral health needs and make NHS work more attractive to dentists and their teams, including those in rural areas. This included improving the 2006 NHS dental contract to ensure fairer remuneration for practices providing complex treatment, enabling practices to deliver more activity than they are contracted to deliver (up to 110% of contract value), and introducing a minimum Unit of Dental Activity value of £23.
Other measures include working with Health Education England and NHS England to understand how Centres for Dental Development could be delivered to improve access in areas with a shortage in provision, which may include more rural areas.
We are planning additional reforms of the NHS Dental System to be announced later this year, with a separate long-term plan for the NHS workforce, which will include measures to strengthen and build capacity in the NHS dental workforce.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
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 financial cost of agency, bank, and other temporary staffing costs at NHS and NHS foundation trusts (a) in total and (b) broken down by trust in 2021-2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The validated data is not yet published for 2021/22.
While the NHS Consolidated Accounts have been published, this does not include an explicit figure for agency or bank spend as it is bundled together with other spend items.
We expect the 2021/22 agency and bank spend data, for the National Health Service as a whole and for individual trusts, to be published this spring.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2023 to Question 150442 on NHS Trusts: Debts, if his Department will publish a list of each NHS trust and NHS foundation trust in financial deficit in the financial year 2021-22 and its deficit.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department do not routinely publish lists of National Health Service trust and NHS foundation trusts in financial deficit. Each individual trust will report their latest financial position in their individual board papers and year-end accounts.
However, the following table shows provides a list of those trusts who reported a financial deficit at the end of 2021/22 based on the latest data made available by NHS England.
NHS providers in deficit 2021-22 | £000,000 |
Mid and South Essex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 111.0 |
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 6,039.4 |
Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 2,272.7 |
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 721.0 |
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 6,328.2 |
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 3,629.0 |
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust | 5,646.0 |
South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust | 3,478.0 |
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 13,179.2 |
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 362.0 |
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 23,227.0 |
Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust | 1,438.0 |
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust | 543.0 |
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust | 1,538.0 |
The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 2,858.1 |
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 1,356.0 |
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust | 6,834.0 |
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust | 1,052.4 |
The Shrewsbury And Telford Hospital NHS Trust | 10,889.5 |
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust | 6,029.0 |
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust | 9,723.0 |
Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust | 1,633.0 |
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust | 11,424.0 |
North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 1.0 |
East London NHS Foundation Trust | 1,178.1 |
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust | 4,577.6 |
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust | 4,370.0 |
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his role is in (a) suspending or (b) removing poorly performing NHS and NHS foundation trust board Chief Executives and Chairs.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Oversight Framework details the overall principles, responsibilities and ways of working for oversight, including the key metrics and factors NHS England will consider when determining support needs, and the circumstances in which it considers formal regulatory intervention may be necessary to address particular issues with integrated care boards, National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts.
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care maintains powers to intervene where there are significant issues with appointed leaders. The Health and Care Act 2022 provides a new duty for NHS England to inform my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care where it considers that my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care ought to make an ‘Intervention’ or ‘Default’ order in relation to an NHS trust. A Default order, where deemed necessary, removes a Chair immediately from post and an Intervention Order, Chair and Board members.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of NHS and NHS foundation trusts in financial deficit in 2021-2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has set out in its Annual Report and Accounts 2021/22 the following table which shows the number of National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts in a financial deficit position in each financial year. The table shows that at the end of the financial year 2021/22, 24 of 215 trusts were in a financial deficit position.
| 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Gross Deficit | (2,433) | (2,755) | (1,560) | (158) | (126) |
Gross Surplus | 1,337 | 1,889 | 567 | 363 | 442 |
Adjustments | 105 | 39 | 323 | 450 | 240 |
Net (Deficit) / Surplus | (991) | (827) | (670) | 655 | 556 |
Number of trusts in deficit | 101 | 107 | 53 | 42 | 24 |
Number of trusts in surplus / balance | 133 | 123 | 173 | 177 | 191 |
Note: Other adjustments relate to minor reporting adjustments relating to differences between control totals and reported surplus/(deficit), where reported surplus/(deficit) includes items such as donated asset income and depreciation, changes in provisions discount rates and prior period adjustments not included in control totals.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding settlement will support the forthcoming NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has committed to publishing a workforce plan next year, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. Funding plans beyond the current Spending Review period will be subject to the outcome of future Spending Reviews.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to publish a White Paper on health disparities.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd MP) on 7 November to Question 74729.