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 reduce the number of women waiting to access essential gynaecological care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including in gynaecological services. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million additional checks and procedures and 30% further elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels. A proportion of this funding will be invested in workforce capacity and training and we have committed to invest £5.9 billion for new beds, equipment and technology.
Community diagnostic centres and surgical hubs will deliver additional activity, including gynaecological services. The Getting it Right First Time high-volume low-complexity programme aims to accelerate access to care and reduce waiting times, including endometriosis related surgery.
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 reduce waiting times for cancer treatment.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including cancer services. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million additional checks and procedures and 30% further elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels.
The plan also sets out how NHS England will return the number of people waiting more than 62 days to start treatment following an urgent referral due to suspected cancer to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023. We have established 91 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) to ensure patients receive earlier diagnostic tests, including for cancer. We will deliver up to 160 CDCs which will allow the NHS to provide up to 17 million tests by March 2025, with capacity for a further nine million per year once fully operational.
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 Integrated Care Boards commission specialist perinatal mental health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Since April 2019, there has been a specialist community perinatal mental health (PMH) service in every integrated care service area of England. The NHS Long Term Plan committed to transform specialist PMH services, to ensure at least 66,000 women can access specialist perinatal mental health services every year by 2023/24. Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, we are also investing £100 million in PMH and parent-infant relationships support. This will be available in the 75 eligible local authorities.
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 the 10-year Cancer Plan will include strategies to improve access to radiotherapy cancer treatments.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Following a call for evidence for a new cancer plan held earlier this year, we are considering over 5,000 responses received.
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 plans to take to improve access to radiotherapy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In 2019/20, 11 radiotherapy networks were established in England in 2019/20 to increase access to specialist skills and improve patient outcomes. Since 2016, over £160 million has been invested in radiotherapy equipment, which has replaced or upgraded approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines.
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, with reference to the finding of the Royal College of Physicians’ 2021 census on the proportion of advertised consultant posts in England and Wales that went unfilled in 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the size of the NHS workforce relative to patient demand.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
No specific assessment has been made. However, the Department has commissioned Health Education England (HEE) to review long term strategic trends for the health and regulated social care workforce to ensure the appropriate skills and behaviours are available to deliver high standards of care.
In addition, the Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long term plan for the workforce, including assessments of supply and demand. The outcomes of this plan will be available in due course. We are also considering workforce implications within forthcoming strategies, including cancer, maternity and mental health services.
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, with reference to the finding of the Royal College of Physicians’ 2021 census on the proportion of advertised consultant posts in England and Wales that went unfilled in 2021, what steps he is taking to increase the number of medical school places.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We have funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England – a 25% increase over three years. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England. In addition, the Government temporarily lifted the cap on medical school places for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and in 2021 in receipt of an offer from a university in England to study medicine, subject to grades.
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, when his Department plans to publish a consultation on requiring businesses to provide calorie labelling on alcohol products.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government has announced its intention to consult on whether to introduce mandatory calorie labelling on prepacked alcohol and alcohol sold in on-trade businesses such as pubs and restaurants. The consultation will be launched in due course.
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, with reference to the policy paper entitled The Government’s Alcohol Strategy, published on 23 March 2012, CM 8336, whether his Department plans to publish a new strategy to help tackle (a) the number of deaths and (b) the cost to society due to harmful alcohol consumption.
Answered by Maggie Throup
There are no current plans to publish a new alcohol strategy. However, we continue to address the harms caused by alcohol misuse including through establishing specialist alcohol care teams in hospitals.
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 visits were made by Government ministers to social care providers in each year since May 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar
The information requested prior to 2019 is not held centrally. While information on Ministerial visits from 2019 to date is held, to obtain it would incur disproportionate cost.