Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of geographic variations in the rates of Units of Dental Activity for NHS dental contracts.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Variations in rates of Units of Dental Activity (UDA) reflect local markets and the varying costs of delivering National Health Service dental treatment across the country. We have worked with the British Dental Association to establish and implement a minimum UDA value of £23. This will help support practices with historically low UDA rates.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental professionals were (a) registered as practicing (i) full- and (ii) part-time and (b) performed more than one course of NHS treatment a month in Cornwall in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Published data is not held on how many dentists are registered as full- and part- time by location. 261 dentists delivered more than one course of National Health Service treatment in Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to increase diagnoses of dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In December 2022, the recovery of the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% was included in the National Health Service priorities and operational planning guidance, as part of the refined mental health objectives for 2023/24. This reinforces the importance of dementia as a key priority for NHS England and provides a clear direction for integrated care boards to support delivery of timely diagnoses within systems.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental contract pilots have been conducted since 2010; and what the findings were of those pilots.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
From 2011, the Department ran one pilot, followed by one prototype contract in a limited number of dental practices, to test a new form of contract remuneration for National Health Service work, based on a capitation approach.
Assessment of the pilots suggested that if they were implemented as designed, the proposed contract model would not maintain dental access for patients, reduce oral health inequalities, or offer overall sustainability within available resources for the NHS. Nevertheless, these pilots and prototypes provided good insight and learning, and will inform future contract reform.
The programme closed at the end of March 2022, and the Department published a full report on the prototype programme on 23 January 2023, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193957 on Brain Cancer: Genetics and the report by OurBrainBank entitled Glioblastoma, The neglected disease in the cancer treatment revolution, published July 2023, what assessment he has made for the potential implications for his polices that OurBrainBank research estimated that whole genome sequencing analysis was carried out on approximately 1.6% of brain tumour patients and 1.3% of glioblastoma patients diagnosed since April 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
Genomic testing for glioblastoma is included in the National Genomic Test Directory. This testing can be delivered using a range of technologies, one of which is whole genome sequencing (WGS). All patients will be offered Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology (large cancer gene panels) to ensure that a patient receives the most appropriate genomic testing depending on their individual circumstances. Anyone who meets the eligibility criteria outlined in the National Genomic Test Directory will be able to access this genomic testing offer. Between January 2022 and June 2023, 505 patients have been referred for WGS because of a suspected glioblastoma or brain tumour diagnosis. In addition to WGS, during 2022/2023, 14,800 genomics tests were performed for neurological tumours, including 3,145 NGS cancer gene panels.
NHS England has not undertaken any formal assessment of the report by OurBrainBank entitled Glioblastoma and is not aware of any research that demonstrates any clinical benefit of WGS over other genomic technologies (i.e., large cancer gene panels) for glioblastoma; however, work is ongoing to evaluate the potential benefits. This will inform future commission decisions made by NHS England.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of setting a minimum Unit of Dental Activity rate of £30 on the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of NHS dental professionals in (i) the South West, (ii) St Ives, (iii) West Cornwall and (iv) the Isles of Scilly.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have no plans to make such an assessment.
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 (ICBs) across England. ICBs have flexibility to work with contractors within the bounds of the current contractual framework as set out in the current General Dental Service contract and Personal Dental Service agreement regulations. At its discretion, an ICB may choose to negotiate with a contractor to decrease or increase the indicative Unit of Dental Activity rate of their contract, the Negotiated Annual Contract Value. Any variation should be for reasonable and appropriate circumstances only and demonstrate value for money and improve access for patients.
In July 2022, we announced a package of dental system improvements to increase access for dental patients in the National Health Service and make NHS dentistry more attractive to practices. We will announce our plan for further reform of the NHS dental system shortly.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS dental contracts were handed back to NHS England in Cornwall in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
During 2021/22 there were 81 dental practices providing National Health Service dental care in Cornwall. One NHS dental practice closed in Wadebridge during 2021/22, which equated to 1.23% of all practices, and 2.87% of the total dental activity in Cornwall.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was recovered by NHS England from dental providers in Cornwall in 2021-22; and how much recovered funding was reallocated for the delivery of NHS dentistry in (i) Cornwall and (ii) St Ives, West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Sums recovered from dentists in Cornwall for underperformance on contracts during 2021/2022 amounted to £4,562,496. The amount recovered is not available for reinvestment in the same financial year due to the calculations being finalised in the following financial year. Dental contracts are paid at the start of each financial year at 100% and so all contractors receive their full contract value to deliver activity in 2022/23.
£334,049.67 was recovered from under-performance of commissioned activity from the 2020/21 contract year and was reinvested for additional urgent dental care appointments that same year.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
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 the rollout of the direct access scheme for GPs to order diagnostic tests for patients with symptoms of cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
In November 2022, NHS England announced that general practitioners (GPs) would have direct access to a range of key diagnostic tests. NHS England is rolling out this direct access scheme across all GP practices in England for patients with concerning symptoms, but who fall outside the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline threshold for an urgent suspected cancer referral.
Phase 1 of the direct access scheme will deal with urgent cancer referral pathways, and Phase 2, which will be built up in 2023/24, will include a wider range of tests, which will involve dialogues with GPs, integrated care boards and key stakeholders.
Alongside this, the introduction of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC) provides additional diagnostic capacity, with 114 CDCs currently in operation, supporting primary care teams to boost the number of GP Direct Access tests available
NHS England continues to actively support those trusts requiring the greatest help to cut cancer waiting lists, and the Department is working with NHS England to make further improvements.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
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 increase the number of glioblastoma patients who are offered whole genome sequencing.
Answered by Will Quince
Genomic testing for glioblastoma is included in the National Genomic Test Directory. Testing can be delivered using a range of technologies, including whole genome sequencing or Next Generation Sequencing technology (large cancer gene panels) to ensure that a patient receives the most appropriate genomic testing depending on their individual circumstances. Anyone who meets the eligibility criteria outlined in the National Genomic Test Directory will be able to access this genomic testing.
In addition, glioblastomas are one of four cancer indications included in an innovative £26 million programme, led by Genomics England in partnership with the National Health Service, to evaluate cutting-edge genomic sequencing technology to improve the accuracy and speed of cancer diagnosis.
Genomics England are also collaborating with a lead researcher to support research into glioblastomas through the Brain Matrix study. Patients who have consented to this study will have whole genome sequencing performed via the NHS Genomic Medicine Service. Further information about the study is available at the following link: