Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking to steps to use (a) screening and (b) enhanced testing to increase early diagnosis rates for prostate cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the current test, the Prostate Specific Antigen test, does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefit in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, which could result in invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment, to warrant roll out as an organised screening programme. The UK NSC is due to review prostate cancer again in 2024 and will consider new evidence published between the two reviews.
In November 2023 we announced that we will be funding a £42 million screening trial with Prostate Cancer UK, to find ways of detecting country’s most common male cancer earlier. The first-of-its-kind trial called TRANSFORM will use innovative screening methods like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning to detect prostate cancer, and it will see hundreds of thousands of men across the country participating.
Steps have been taken to use enhanced testing to increase early diagnosis rates for prostate cancer; NHS England have streamlined cancer pathways, including implementing a best timed prostate cancer diagnostic pathway so that those suspected of prostate cancer receive a multi-parametric MRI scan first, which ensures only those men most at-risk undergo an invasive biopsy. Furthermore, to boost early diagnosis NHS England is supporting three pilots, including the Man Van as part of the COVID-19 catch up cancer initiative. The Man Van was launched in March 2022 to provide free health checks for men and boost early diagnosis of prostate cancer.
In addition, backed by £2.3 billion capital funding, the Department is expanding diagnostic capacity across the National Health Service by rolling out more community diagnostic centres (CDCs), delivering vital tests, scans and checks. With 150 CDCs open already and up to 160 set to open by March 2025, these offer millions of patients the chance to access quicker, more convenient checks outside of hospitals, with capacity prioritised for cancer. This is contributing to the elective recovery delivery plan ambition for 75% of patients urgently referred by their general practice for suspected cancer, to receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within 28 days.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps she has taken to implement the recommendations of Sir Mike Richards' report entitled the Independent review of adult screening programmes in England, published in October 2019.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department, NHS England and formerly Public Health England, took forward a number of workstreams to address the recommendations made by Prof Sir Mike Richards as part of the review of adult screening programmes.
A number of these workstreams have already been completed, including since June 2022, the expanded remit of the UK National Screening Committee to review targeted and stratified screening alongside population screening programmes and guidance published in 2020 on tackling equalities.
We continue to work with NHS England to improve uptake of screening programmes, including through data sharing, research, and via the Digital Transformation of Screening programme. This programme is designing and implementing future-proof digital systems that will allow programmes to become more responsive for service users and providers.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the early detection of mouth cancer in the North East.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Every dental check-up constitutes as an oral cancer screening. Dentists and other dental professionals, including hygienists, routinely check the soft tissues of a patient’s mouth for signs of cancer during dental visits, and as part of the check-up, will make an assessment and record an individual’s oral cancer risk. Dentists will prioritise patients at a higher risk of cancer for more frequent recall and review, in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance.
In November 2022, the Government introduced a new package of measures across England, including the North East, to improve patient access to dental care. The measures include fairer pay for all National Health Service dentists to provide more complex dental care to those who need it most, and a requirement on dentists to update the NHS website regularly to make it clear which practices are taking on new patients and the services available, improving access.
To improve early detection of cancer, including oral cancer, we are implementing NHS England’s comprehensive early diagnosis strategy, which is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis, including oral cancers. NHS England has published an NHS mouth cancer awareness leaflet for dental teams, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mouth-cancer/
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 increase the number of people living with diabetes who receive their NICE recommended care processes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Recovery of routine diabetes care following the pandemic is a key priority for the NHS England Diabetes Programme. Transformation funding between 2020/21 and 2022/23 has supported recovery, as such that rates of routine care delivery are now almost back to the pre-pandemic level. Services in the National Health Service are asked to continue this upward trajectory, with a particular focus on ensuring that people from socio-economically deprived areas receive their annual reviews.
According to the report from the fourth quarter of 2022/23, the percentage of people who received all eight National Institute of Health and Care Excellence recommended care processes in England between January 2022 and March 2023 was 40.5% for type 1 diabetes and 57.8% for type 2/other diabetes, 15.3% and 20.6% higher respectively than the same period in the previous year. The percentages remained slightly lower than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, where in the fourth quarter of 2019/20, they were 42.3% and 58.5%, respectively.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are undergoing dialysis treatment in Easington constituency.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on dialysis that takes place at home is not collected centrally. The following table shows dialysis in English National Health Service hospitals as well as English NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector for patients resident in the Easington constituency:
Year | Episodes | Patients |
2018/19 | 210 | 50 |
2019/20 | 225 | 40 |
2020/21 | 225 | 45 |
2021/22 | 140 | 55 |
2022/23 | 215 | 50 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS maternity units have not appointed a retention midwife.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We do not hold data on the number of retention midwives in National Health Service maternity units.
The midwifery retention programme has been underpinned by the People Promise values which has focussed on early careers, staff experience and late careers. The programme has taken an evidence-based approach to scaling up good practice and continuous improvement through the delivery of an education and learning platform.
The Long Term Workforce Plan builds on the People Promise and the People Plan and sets out how to improve culture and leadership to ensure that up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the NHS over the next 15 years. This includes: implementing actions from the NHS People Plan that have been shown to be successful; implementing plans to improve flexible opportunities for prospective retirees and delivering the actions needed to modernise the NHS pension scheme; and committing to ongoing national funding for continuing professional development for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, so NHS staff are supported to meet their full potential.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many midwives working in the NHS were aged (a) 70 to 74, (b) 75 and (c) over the age of 75 years in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England publishes data on the numbers of National Health Service staff by age bands. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), the human resources system for the NHS. The data is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
However, this data does not cover the age bands requested, and so the table below shows the headcount number of midwives working in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England between 70 and 74 years old, 75 years old and over the 75 years old in each of the last five years:
Year as of September | September 2019 | September 2020 | September 2021 | September 2022 | September 2023 |
Total number of midwives | 26,062 | 26,840 | 26,418 | 26,075 | 27,065 |
Midwives aged 70 to 74 | 22 | 23 | 27 | 25 | 32 |
Midwives aged 75 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
Midwives aged over 75 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Source: NHS England Hospital and Community Health Service Workforce Data
Note: The data includes staff employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations. It excludes staff directly employed in general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers such as community interest companies and private providers.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to help ensure that there are sufficient clinical placements of the correct standard for the planned increase in student midwife numbers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England works with placements providers in all regions to ensure sufficient and high-quality practice-based learning. Over recent years, NHS England, formerly Health Education England, has invested £55 million to increase clinical placement capacity. This is in addition to the provision of placement tariff to support placement providers for nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students.
As set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, we aim to expand the number of midwifery training places from 3,778 to 4,269 by 2028. To support this expansion, NHS England will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure placement providers know what core standards they need to meet, supported by national co-design of placements, to provide a strategic view of capacity and support joined up working between the National Health Service and the education sector to ensure the correct standard of training, in the correct volumes and locations.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the planned rise in student midwife numbers on (a) universities and (b) staff to student ratios.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The supply of core clinical professions in the National Health Service, including midwives, relies on undergraduate degree programmes that are led and delivered by the university sector. As set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, we will work with Higher Education Institutes and system partners, including professional regulators, to plan and deliver the education expansion and reforms set out in the Plan. This includes work to develop an expanded and fully trained supervisory workforce.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much was paid from the public purse to (a) NHS trusts and (b) student midwives for clinical placements provided to student midwives in the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In the previous five financial years, £87 million was paid by NHS England to National Health Service trusts for clinical placements for midwifery students. Travel and accommodation expenses are the only element of financial support provided to students by the Government which specifically supports clinical placements. The total amount of this paid to students undertaking education and training that enables them to register as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the previous five financial years is £6.6 million.