Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 increase the availability of medication for people with ADHD in Wansbeck constituency; and what recent estimate he has made of when supplies of this medication will be available.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Shortages of medicines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have primarily been driven by capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites These issues have resulted in global supply disruptions. The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, which should resolve by April 2024.
We have well-established processes to manage supply issues and continue to work with the respective manufacturers and all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the supply disruptions are resolved as soon as possible.
We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine shortages can be and we want to assure patients that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues with ADHD medicine supply in the United Kingdom as soon as possible and to help ensure patients are able to access these medicines in the short and long term.
We do not hold information or act at a local level but issue regular communication to enable healthcare professionals to make appropriate prescribing decisions.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 increase the number of people working in the social care sector.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many nurses currently work (a) permanent (b) bank and (c) permanent and bank work patterns.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 help ensure that residents in care homes can access a dentist.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Community dental services (CDS) offer dental care to vulnerable patients who are referred by a general practitioners or Social Worker and cannot be treated in a general National Health Service dental practice. Treatments are provided in settings including hospitals, specialist health centres and mobile clinics, as well as through home visits or visits in nursing and care homes.
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population, including for people in care homes. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards (ICBs) from April 2023. ICBs will be responsible for meeting the needs of its local population by working with patient groups, including on communication needs. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 waiting times for (a) GP appointments, (b) Accident and Emergency treatment and (c) delayed medical (i) treatments and (ii) operations in hospital.
Answered by Will Quince
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which contains measures to help people make an informed choice about which practice is best for them, book general practice appointments more easily, benefit from more options when they need care and bolster general practice teams with other professionals who can help them to deliver over a million more appointments this winter.
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 to pre-pandemic levels.
The pandemic has put enormous pressures on the National Health Service with elective waiting lists growing to over 7 million patients but we remain committed to ensuring people get the right care at the right time. The NHS will set out detailed recovery plans in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to reduce the (a) pressure on and (b) workload of NHS staff.
Answered by Will Quince
We are committed to looking after the National Health Service workforce. The health, safety and wellbeing of NHS staff is a priority and as we continue to grow the NHS workforce. There are now over 42,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) more staff working in NHS provider trusts and commissioning bodies than a year ago in October 2021, including almost 4,700 more doctors and over 10,500 more nurses.
The NHS People Plan and NHS People Promise, published in July 2020, set out a comprehensive range of actions that are focussed on making the NHS a better place to work and to improve retention. This includes a stronger focus on health and wellbeing, strengthening leadership and management to support staff and expanding opportunities for flexible working. We have also committed to publishing a long term workforce plan this year to help ensure the NHS has the robust and resilient workforce it needs for the future.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 levels of staff (a) recruitment and (b) retention in the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is growing the National Health Service workforce. There are now over 42,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) more staff working in NHS provider trusts and commissioning bodies than a year ago, October 2021, including almost 4,700 more doctors and over 10,500 more nurses. We are working hard to deliver 50,000 nurses by the end of March 2024 and we are well on the way towards achieving this aim with over 36,000 more nurses working in the NHS now compared with September 2019.
The Government has funded 1,500 more medical school places each year for domestic students in England, a 25% increase over three years. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England. There are currently record numbers of medical students in training.
The NHS People Plan sets out a comprehensive range of actions to improve staff retention. Actions to improve the experience of staff outlined in the 2020 NHS People Plan and People Promise continue to be priorities, as outlined in the NHS national planning guidance in 2021/22 and 2022/23.
The NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well. A staff retention guide has been updated and includes information on supporting staff in their late and early career with specific focus on induction, reward and recognition and menopause support.
We have has also commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will look at the mix and number of staff required across all parts of the country and will set out the actions and reforms that will be needed to reduce supply gaps and improve retention.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 (a) increasing funding for medical schools, (b) offering additional financial support to people training for medical careers and (c) increasing salaries for NHS workers on increasing the size of the NHS workforce.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government reviews funding arrangements for all healthcare students before the start of each academic year. Whilst we will attempt to address a variety of issues with the finite resources available to us, we must also strike a balance between ensuring students are financially supported during their studies and delivering maximum value for money for the taxpayer.
For 2023/24, we have asked the independent pay review bodies for pay recommendations for National Health Service staff not already in multi-year deals. This follows the acceptance in full of the 2022/23 financial year’s recommendations.
We have commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term plan for the NHS workforce for the next 15 years. The high-level long-term NHS workforce plan will look at the mix and number of staff required across all parts of the country and will set out the actions and reforms that will be needed to reduce supply gaps and improve retention. This plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 tackle workforce shortages in the social care sector.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In February 2022, we made care workers eligible for the Health and Care Visa and added them to the Shortage Occupation list. We are also investing £15 million to further boost overseas recruitment opportunities. We are running a national recruitment campaign, with continuous activity across jobs boards, video on demand, digital audio, radio and social media until 31 March. We are also making available £500 million to support safe and timely discharges from hospital. Where appropriate local areas can use this funding for measures related specifically to the recruitment and retention of care workers.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 and proportion of deaths that would have been preventable if medical attention had been available sooner in Wansbeck constituency in each month since September 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
No specific estimate has been made.