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, if he will make an estimate of the number of GPs who have qualified since 2015 and left the NHS to practice overseas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not hold the data requested.
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 his Department is taking to reduce the number of patients waiting more than six weeks for diagnostic tests in the areas covered by the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
Answered by Will Quince
In February 2022 the National Health Service published the “Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care”. This plan set out a series of commitments to reduce the backlog, including that 95% of patients needing a diagnostic test should receive it within six weeks by March 2025.
To meet this commitment, we are rolling out a network of up to 160 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) across the country to deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England. These will deliver up to 17 million tests by March 2025, having added the capacity for nine million more per year once they are all fully operational.
As of July 2023, 114 CDCs are operational, and have delivered over 4.4 million tests, checks, and scans since July 2021. This includes three operational CDCs within the Humber and North Yorkshire which have conducted 63,565 tests since September 2021.
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 progress his Department has made in improving survival rates for cardiac arrests outside of hospitals; and what plans he has to increase the (a) number of public-facing public sector workers who have completed cardiac first aid training and (b) number and accessibility of defibrillators in public places.
Answered by Will Quince
The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government. We want people to have the best chance of survival from cardiac arrest, and rapid intervention is central to improving outcomes.
This is why the Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) that expands the number and accessibility of publicly supported defibrillators
NHS England have partnered with St John Ambulance to co-ordinate skills development to significantly increase the use of AEDs by individuals in community settings. This includes a national network of Community Advocates to champion the importance of first aid, training 60,000 people that will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028. Many public sector organisations already provide first aid courses that include CPR and cardiac first aid training.
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, whether his Department has plans to increase the range of health services provided by Bridlington Hospital; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for healthcare services which meet the reasonable needs of the people for whom they are responsible. ICBs are responsible for evaluating the changing needs of the populations for which they are responsible and planning new service provision as 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, if he will publicise the scope and timing of the proposed consultation on proposals to expand water fluoridation in the North East; what steps he plans to take to encourage participation in that consultation; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government has stated its intention to expand water fluoridation across the North-East of England. Public consultation is proposed to start in 2023. Following the consultation, we will provide an update on the proposals for water fluoridation. The Government sought views on the future consultation process in 2022 with the outcome published and available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/water-fluoridation-seeking-views-on-future-consultation-process/outcome/water-fluoridation-seeking-views-on-future-consultation-process-government-response-to-consultation-outcome
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 plans to take to help increase the use of community pharmacies for (a) detection, (b) prevention and (c) other services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion per year to the sector and outlines a joint vision for how community pharmacy will be more integrated into the National Health Service, deliver more clinical services and become the first port of call for minor illnesses. We have commissioned a range of services through the CPCF; for example, NHS 111 and GPs can refer patients to community pharmacies for advice and treatment for minor illnesses. NHS 111 can also refer for urgent medicines supply. Many pharmacies now also offer blood pressure checks.
In September last year we announced the agreement for the remainder of the five-year deal, which includes a further one-off investment in the sector of £100 million. This agreement continues the expansion of the services offered by community pharmacies by enabling community pharmacists to manage and initiate contraception and enabling urgent and emergency care settings to refer patients to a community pharmacist for a minor illness consultation or for an urgent medicine supply. We continue to discuss with the sector what more community pharmacies could sustainably do, making use of their valuable clinical skills for the benefit of patients and the NHS.
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, whether he plans to (a) increase the range and (b) improve the standard of services available at Alfred Bean Hospital in Driffield; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Alfred Bean Hospital is part of Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust’s long-term estates strategy. The trust’s core goal is to maximise the use of the range of services available on site.
It is important to the trust that optimal space planning is structured in a way that will ensure maximum benefit for people across Driffield and the surrounding areas. The trust is working closely with the League of Friends, Driffield Healthy Town Group, and local commissioners to ensure the site is a continued priority.
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 is the estimated cost of awaiting maintenance projects at (a) all NHS Hospitals, (b) hospitals within the management of York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (c) Bridlington Hospital in East Yorkshire; what steps he plans to take to reduce the cost of these projects; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The 2021/22 publication of the Estates Return Information Collection sets out the latest data on backlog maintenance costs across the National Health Service acute estate. Data covers four levels of risk maintenance (low, moderate, significant, and high). This shows the following: for all hospitals in England total backlog maintenance costs stand at £10.2 billion; the sites reported under York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have total backlog maintenance costs of £36,454,338; and Bridlington Hospital in East Yorkshire has total backlog maintenance costs of £5,994,670.
This Government is investing record sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings, including £4 billion this year and £12 billion over the next three years. This includes £39 million for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as part of the ‘Hospital Upgrades’ programme.
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 reduce ambulance response times for emergencies in East Yorkshire.
Answered by Will Quince
A range of measures are in place to reduce ambulance response times, including in East Yorkshire. The National Health Service winter resilience plan will increase NHS bed capacity by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds, helping reduce pressure in accident and emergency so that ambulances can get swiftly back out on the road.
An additional £250 million has been made available to enable the NHS to buy up beds in the community to safely discharge thousands of patients from hospital and capital for discharge lounges and ambulance hubs. This will improve flow through hospitals and reducing waits to handover ambulance patients. This is on top of the £500 million already invested last year.
NHS England has allocated £150 million of additional system funding for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, alongside £20 million of capital funding to upgrade the ambulance fleet in each year to 2024/25.
As announced in the Autumn Statement, the Government is investing an additional £3.3 billion in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25 to enable rapid action to improve urgent and emergency, elective, and primary care performance towards pre-pandemic levels. The NHS will soon set out detailed recovery plans to deliver faster ambulance response times.
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 recent assessment he has made of the UK's readiness for any future pandemic; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact on that readiness of the discontinuance of several of the initiatives of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom has flexible and well-tested pandemic response capabilities. We are continuously updating our pandemic plans to reflect the latest scientific information and lessons learned from exercises and our response to emergencies, including COVID-19. We cannot perfectly predict the characteristics of a new pandemic pathogen and therefore our pandemic preparedness is an area kept under constant review to ensure readiness.
The UK Vaccine Taskforce’s responsibilities including vaccine supply, onshoring of UK vaccine capability and international engagement are being integrated across Government functions including UK Health Security Agency. As part of our overall pandemic response capabilities the Government has in place an Advanced Purchase Agreement to guarantee access to pandemic specific influenza vaccines, which would likely be available within four to six months after the pandemic has started.
In addition, at the end of December, UK Government and Moderna entered a strategic partnership to set up mRNA research and development and manufacturing facilities in the UK, capable of producing up to 250 million vaccines per year in the event of a pandemic.