Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
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 increase the availability of lateral flow tests in East Yorkshire constituency.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In December 2021, we delivered approximately 280 million lateral flow device (LFD) tests and we have since procured new stocks and increased delivery capacity. We expect to deliver 90 million LFD tests a week across the United Kingdom, including East Yorkshire and County Durham, including seven million a day through GOV.UK. In England, this includes approximately 12 million tests a week through pharmacies.
For polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, we increased capacity before Christmas and developed a network which processed over four million tests by 10 January 2022. We expect that there is currently sufficient capacity to process PCR tests.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
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 (a) develop and (b) improve the services available at the Alfred Bean Hospital in Driffield.
Answered by Edward Argar
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with East Riding Council and Driffield Town Council, local partner agencies and communities to understand, develop and improve local services. This includes reviewing services available at the Alfred Bean Hospital.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
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 21 June 2021 to Question 17694, on Bridlington and District Hospital, what recent progress has been made on the (a) development of the stroke inpatient rehabilitation service within Bridlington Hospital and (b) virtual outpatient and multi-disciplinary consultations referenced in that Answer.
Answered by Edward Argar
The stroke inpatient rehabilitation service is now fully operational at Bridlington Hospital, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This service is accepting patients from the Bridlington and Scarborough area who require continuing care following discharge from a hyper acute stroke unit in York or Hull. The Trust is currently examining possible solutions for virtual outpatient and multi-disciplinary consultations to be undertaken in some areas of specialist care.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
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 future litigation risk to the NHS in the event that chemicals in NHS-prescribed e-cigarettes are found to be detrimental to public health.
Answered by Maggie Throup
No assessment has been made as there are currently no medicinal e-cigarettes available prescribed via the National Health Service. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) published updated guidance on 29 October 2021 to encourage manufacturers to bring a medicinal e-cigarette to market.
For a manufacturer to achieve a medicinal licence, products would need to meet the standards of quality, safety, and efficacy expected of medicinal products. There would be a duty to continually monitor the performance of their product, submit vigilance reports to the MHRA when incidents occur and take appropriate safety action if required.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what Yorkshire Ambulance Service's average response time is over the past 12 months for which figures are available, for (a) Category 1 calls, (b) Category 2 calls and (c) Category 3 calls.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Yorkshire Ambulance Service's average response time over the past twelve months for (a) Category 1 calls, (b) Category 2 calls and (c) Category 3 calls in the last 12 months for the Sept 2020 to Oct 2021 period is as below:
Category 1: 8 minutes, 14 seconds
Category 2: 27 minutes, 27 seconds
Category 3: 1 hour, 19 minutes, 48 seconds
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many complaints have been made (a) to and (b) about the Yorkshire Ambulance Service in the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of complaints to Yorkshire Ambulance Service were resolved within eight weeks in the most recent year for which figures are available; and how that data compares to the same data in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Argar
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he (a) is taking to improve the treatment of irritable bowel disease and (b) plans to take to speed up diagnosis of that disease to enable faster access to specialist treatment; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) best practice guidance on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and the corresponding quality standard sets out recommendations for clinicians on the diagnosis and care for patients. Clinicians should take this guidance into account, when making treatment decisions for patients suffering with IBS. NICE also maintains surveillance of new evidence will review this guidance if required.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
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 ensure adequate supplies of blood bottles for use in routine blood tests; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar
We have secured tens of millions of additional blood tubes, including importing additional supplies from the European Union and the United States, which are now in use and there continues to be stock in place to ensure clinically urgent testing continues. The Department is working closely with NHS England, the devolved administrations and the National Health Service to minimise any impact on patient care.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2021, health in coastal communities, published on 21 July 2021, what steps he plans to take to improve (a) health outcomes and (b) recruitment and retention of NHS staff in coastal areas; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government is committed to levelling up health outcomes across the country, including in coastal communities. Reducing health inequalities will be a core aim of the new Office for Health Promotion (OHP). Under the professional leadership of the Chief Medical Officer, the OHP will bring together evidence, data and intelligence on what drives better and more equal health outcomes and develop strong relationships across government and the National Health Service (NHS) to drive change.
The Government is committed to ensuring that all parts of the country, including coastal areas, have the NHS workforce that they need. Health Education England (HEE) is undertaking a range of work with partners to ensure that there are enough NHS staff training and working in all areas of the country, including coastal areas. This includes reviewing the distribution of medical specialty training places to help ensure that trainee doctors are in the right parts of the country. HEE has also commissioned 11 universities to deliver nursing or midwifery degrees with blended learning elements, which will broaden their reach to under-served populations such as coastal areas.