To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Psychiatric Patients: Self-harm and Suicide
Monday 18th December 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many incidents of (a) self-harm, (b) suicide and (c) attempted suicide by patients within (i) 24 and (ii) 48 hours of discharge from a mental health hospital have been been recorded in the past year.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS) does not hold the information requested.

The University of Manchester provides data on suicides for people in contact with mental health services annually. Their reports are available at the following link:

https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/ncish/reports/


Written Question
Members: Correspondence
Wednesday 13th December 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of 1 June 2023 from the hon. Member for South Shields.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord Markham) has received the hon. Member’s letter and will reply shortly.


Written Question
Healthy Start Scheme: Expenditure
Monday 11th December 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much her Department spent on the Healthy Start Scheme in the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

2022-23 financial year spend information is subject to the upcoming DHSC Annual Report and Accounts publication, which is due to be published imminently. Healthy Start costs will be available following this publication.


Written Question
Cancer: Health Services
Tuesday 5th December 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for cancer treatment.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson

  • Improving cancer treatment waiting times is a top priority for the government and is a key focus of our elective recovery plan, backed by an additional £8bn in revenue funding across the Spending Review Period.

  • In the 2023/24 Operational Planning Guidance, NHS England announced it is providing over £390m to Cancer Alliances. This will support delivery of operational priorities for cancer which includes increasing and prioritising cancer treatment capacity.


Written Question
Malnutrition
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions there were for (a) scurvy, (b) rickets, (c) vitamin D deficiency and (d) malnutrition in age groups (i) up to four, (ii) five to nine, (iii) 10-16 and (iv) over 17 years in (A) 2020/21 and (B) 2021/22.

Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)

The following tables show activity in National Health Service hospitals and NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector in England, with a count of Finished Admission Episodes with a “primary” or “primary or secondary diagnosis” of scurvy, rickets, vitamin D deficiency and malnutrition by age group for 2020/21 and 2021/22:

2020/21

Primary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

1

41

28

11

5-9

2

1

12

7

10-16

2

8

50

16

17 or over

2

0

586

765

2020/21

Primary or Secondary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

3

41

1,715

71

5-9

4

1

1,698

43

10-16

10

8

4,713

165

17 or over

151

0

126,785

9,681

2021/22

Primary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

2

41

64

14

5-9

6

8

21

11

10-16

4

3

91

15

17 or over

3

1

863

843

2021/22

Primary or Secondary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

5

41

2,054

73

5-9

17

8

1,810

67

10-16

29

3

6,022

140

17 or over

144

1

167,169

10,242

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS England

The root causes of malnutrition may be clinical, for example disease-related, social and/or economic. These problems often interact in a complex cycle. Some health conditions can lead to malnutrition including eating disorders, although malnutrition itself is not an eating disorder.


Written Question
Healthy Start Scheme
Friday 20th October 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

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 recipients of Healthy Start paper vouchers have not re-enrolled via the online registration system.

Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)

The NHS Business Services Authority estimate that as of 15 October 2023 there were 20,500 households which previously were in receipt of paper vouchers which have not successfully applied to the NHS Healthy Start prepaid card scheme. This is around 7% of the 286,791 households that were in receipt of paper vouchers in August 2021. The 7% figure includes households that are no longer eligible to apply for the Healthy Start scheme.

In September 2023, uptake for the Healthy Start scheme was 68.2%. Uptake of the fully digitised scheme is higher than the previous paper voucher scheme. Healthy Start now supports around 367,000 beneficiaries.


Written Question
Deficiency Diseases
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions were there for (a) scurvy, (b) rickets and (c) vitamin D deficiency in England in the latest period for which data is available, broken down by age groups (i) 0-5 years, (ii) 5-10 years, (iii) 10-16 years and (iv) over-16 years.

Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)

The following tables show activity in National Health Service hospitals and NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector in England. NHS England has provided a count of Finished Admission Episodes with a “primary” or “primary or secondary diagnosis” of scurvy, rickets, vitamin D deficiency and malnutrition by age group for 2022/23.

Primary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

1

29

47

12

5-9

3

4

21

8

10-16

1

2

60

24

17 or over

9

2

752

741

Primary or Secondary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

5

317

2,052

71

5-9

5

30

1,757

45

10-16

5

56

5,251

153

17 or over

151

77

176,317

10,301

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS England

The root causes of malnutrition may be clinical (for example disease-related), social and/or economic. These problems often interact in a complex cycle. Some health conditions can lead to malnutrition including eating disorders, although malnutrition itself is not an eating disorder.


Written Question
Malnutrition
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions for malnutrition in England were there in the latest period for which data is available, broken down by age groups (a) 0-5 years, (b) 5-10 years, (c) 10-16 years and (d) over-16 years.

Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)

The following tables show activity in National Health Service hospitals and NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector in England. NHS England has provided a count of Finished Admission Episodes with a “primary” or “primary or secondary diagnosis” of scurvy, rickets, vitamin D deficiency and malnutrition by age group for 2022/23.

Primary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

1

29

47

12

5-9

3

4

21

8

10-16

1

2

60

24

17 or over

9

2

752

741

Primary or Secondary Diagnosis

Patient Age (years)

Scurvy

Rickets

Vitamin D Deficiency

Malnutrition

0-4

5

317

2,052

71

5-9

5

30

1,757

45

10-16

5

56

5,251

153

17 or over

151

77

176,317

10,301

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS England

The root causes of malnutrition may be clinical (for example disease-related), social and/or economic. These problems often interact in a complex cycle. Some health conditions can lead to malnutrition including eating disorders, although malnutrition itself is not an eating disorder.


Written Question
Healthy Start Scheme
Thursday 7th September 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to make available audited data on the cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in the 2022/23 financial year.

Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)

Audited financial information for the Department is due to be published in November 2023 as part of the Annual Review of Accounts (ARA). Specific information related to the costs of the Healthy Start scheme may not be explicit within the ARA due to the size of the programme but will be available from that point.


Written Question
Healthy Start Scheme
Thursday 7th September 2023

Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)

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 13 June 2023 to Question 188559 on Healthy Start Scheme, for what reason Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available.

Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)

While the Department forecasts the numbers of beneficiaries on the Healthy Start scheme, the forecasts are updated frequently and are not centrally validated. As a result, these internal forecasts are not released in the public domain.