Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 support Integrated Care Boards to implement NICE guideline NG73 on endometriosis in primary care, including training for GPs and practice nurses on recognising cyclical pain, initiating first-line management and making timely referrals.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government acknowledges the importance of ensuring healthcare professionals are adequately trained and educated on women’s health conditions, including endometriosis, and we have taken action to address this.
NHS England encourages adherence to guidance publications by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). However, professionals and practitioners are expected to exercise their judgement when taking NICE guidelines into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences, and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
NHS England is currently developing a pelvic pain pathway for systems which will provide a framework for managing pelvic pain and endometriosis across the healthcare system. This will be aligned with NICE guidance and will enable women to get care either in primary care, neighbourhood services, or specialist secondary care services in line with their needs.
The Skills for Health Multi-professional Capabilities framework has a focus on developing basic, intermediate, and advanced skills so that all healthcare professionals are able to manage pain and, where the ceiling of skills are reached, have an easy referral pathway to achieving good outcomes.
NHS England is working with regions to encourage and support implementation of these pathways and a neighbourhood approach to care, which will help to support early recognition and diagnosis, reducing waiting times for women for conditions including endometriosis.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 ensure that menopause training is included in routine primary care continuing professional development and the women’s health workforce model to ensure consistent implementation of NICE guideline NG23 and quality standard QS143 across general practice.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the ongoing need to ensure healthcare practitioners have sufficient knowledge of women’s health, including menopause, to provide the best possible care.
General practitioners (GPs) are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.
Menopause is included in the Royal College of General Practitioners’ curriculum for trainee GPs, including gynaecology, sexual health, and breast health. The curriculum also covers women’s healthcare needs across all diseases seen in primary care, ensuring future GPs treat women holistically.
The General Medical Council (GMC) introduced a new Medical Licensing Assessment for all medical graduates from the academic year 2024/25 with an updated version being introduced for September 2026. This includes topics relating to women’s health, such as menopause and perimenopause.
All United Kingdom registered doctors are subject to revalidation requirements, overseen by the GMC, with the process led by the Royal College of General Practitioners. Continuing professional development is essential for demonstrating fitness to practise safely.
NHS England is developing a Multi-professional Capabilities Framework with Skills for Health, to develop tiered trainings and competencies for health care professionals to ensure continued professional development across the workforce.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to ensure that Integrated Care Boards have clear pathways for access to specialist menopause advice and escalation for complex cases, including premature ovarian insufficiency and persistent symptoms; and what steps he is taking to reduce variation in menopause referrals and prescribing.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published in April 2026, committed to redesigning clinical pathways, including for menopause.
These redesigned pathways will create roadmaps for health systems to use and adapt for local needs that will enable women to move more quickly through the system and reach the level of care they need with fewer appointments.
Integrated care boards will monitor and report on progress through improvement plans submitted to the NHS England Women’s Health National Programme Board.
The renewed Women’s Health Strategy also shifts women’s health care, including menopause, away from hospital-only care towards primary and community settings, such as neighbourhood women’s health services and women’s health hubs, making care easier to access and closer to home. Neighbourhood women’s health services will liaise with secondary care services to ensure that people who require specialist care have access to it, including those who are experiencing treatment-induced menopause.
Additionally, each region will have a specialist centre to support group-based clinics in women's health such as menopause services, improving access, peer support, and consistency, with early rollout focused on areas of highest need.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 include metrics on endometriosis diagnostic times, access to imaging, menopause prescribing, treatment review and referral variation in the women’s health data dashboard and Integrated Care Board improvement plans.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The women's health data dashboard is available on the NHS Futures website and is available to anyone working within the health and care sector who requires insight into women's health. The dashboard records need, access, outcomes, and experiences across a range of women’s health conditions, including diagnostics and prescribing.
The dashboard is intended to provide national and local insight into National Health Service performance in women's health and highlight potential unmet need, unwarranted variation, and health inequalities.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services that meet the healthcare needs of their local population and have the freedom to do so, and this includes women's health services. Outcomes in women’s health are shared with ICBs through the data dashboard so they can see how well they are meeting the needs of women in their population. Local systems will then be able to shape their services according to need and can monitor the impact over time.
More data and indicators will be added to the dashboard over the next 12 months.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 impact of treatment delays on outcomes for patients with heart valve disease.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the importance of reducing waiting times. We are making progress - hitting our target of 65% against the 18 week standard this March and delivering largest single month elective performance improvement in 17 years - excluding the pandemic. Our new modern service framework for Cardiovascular Disease will accelerate the Government’s commitment to reduce premature mortality from heart disease by 25% in the next ten years.Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, a) what steps are being taken to inform those living with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) that they are entitled to earlier screening for breast cancer, and b) what steps are being taken to improve access to earlier screening for those with NF1.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is committed to improving cancer screening services in line with the National Cancer Plan and as part of the 10-Year Health Plan’s shift from treatment to prevention.
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) affects individuals differently. An individual’s risk of breast cancer is based on a number of factors. These factors may vary throughout a lifetime which is why individuals are advised to seek advice from their health professionals.
Most, but not all, individuals with NF1 would be considered at moderate risk of breast cancer, which would mean they could be referred to local cancer surveillance programme commissioned via integrated care boards.
National Institute of Health and Care Excellence guidance does not address NF1 specifically but does state that people with certain genetic conditions should be referred through to a geneticist to consider their risk and may qualify for annual breast screening between 40 and 50 years of age.
The NHS website provides information for people living with NF1, available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/neurofibromatosis-type-1/
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the review into the Carr-Hill formula accounts for GP translation service costs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The review of the general practice (GP) funding formula, the Carr-Hill formula, is being conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The purpose of the review is to ensure that funding for GPs is distributed equitably and is targeted towards areas that need it most.
The review has commenced and will draw on a range of evidence and advice from experts. Implementation of any new funding approach will be subject to ministerial decision, in the context of the available funding and our commitment to substantively reform the General Medical Services Contract within this Parliament.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of translation services.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of providing training to mental health teams on support to children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can now also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is going into its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.
In partnership with NHS England, the Department for Education has extended the Early Language and Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs in early years settings and primary schools.
At the Spending Review, we confirmed that we will deliver on our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament, roll out mental health support teams to cover all schools in England by 2029/30 and expand NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes.
We have also already started piloting Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres. These pilots aim to provide open access care for anyone with a severe mental illness 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our aim is to have one Neighbourhood Health Centre in each community that brings together National Health Service, local authority and voluntary sector services in one building to help create a holistic offer that meets the needs of local populations including children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 impact of delayed access to specialist heart valve treatment has on (a) avoidable unscheduled hospitalisations, (b) deaths on waiting lists and (c) other patient outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of delayed access to specialist heart valve disease (HVD) treatment on avoidable unscheduled hospitalisations, deaths on waiting lists, or other patient outcomes.
Cutting waiting times, including for cardiology services, is a key priority for the Government. The cardiology waiting list decreased from 412,164 in September 2024 to 393,400 in September 2025, although this data includes estimates for missing data.
Cardiology is a priority specialty for significant transformation, as outlined in the Elective Reform Plan. The ambition is, where possible and clinically appropriate, to increase specialist care closer to home, and outside of hospitals so that hospital capacity is freed up, enabling patients' timely access to care, as well as improving outcomes.
NHS England has committed to optimising pathways of care for patients with HVD, including earlier detection and improved treatment pathways. To achieve this, the NHS England Cardiac Programme has established an expert advisory group and carried out work including, in 2024/25, providing targeted funding for pathway improvement projects. These included projects that focussed on improving referral processes and local diagnostic pathway provision, as well as fast-tracking patients on valve disease pathways.
To accelerate progress towards the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease modern service framework in 2026.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has made an estimate of the number and proportion of women diagnosed with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis who receive timely treatment compared to men.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the count of elective hospital admissions where there was a primary diagnosis of 'aortic stenosis', by patient gender, as well as the median duration from the receipt of referral by the hospital to admission for 2022/23 to 2024/25:
Year | Gender | Total admissions | Number of admissions with a valid waiting time | Median time to admission (days) |
2022/23 | Male | 6,072 | 5,193 | 48 |
2022/23 | Female | 3,600 | 3,073 | 44 |
2023/24 | Male | 6,126 | 5,364 | 47 |
2023/24 | Female | 3,695 | 3,259 | 46 |
2024/25 | Male | 6,615 | 5,822 | 43 |
2024/25 | Female | 4,105 | 3,623 | 42 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England.