Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the proportion of GP appointments in Ealing North conducted face-to-face in the past 12 months; and what that figure was in 2013.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested. However, in the twelve months up to August 2022, 59.7% of appointments were conducted face-to-face in the North West London Integrated Care System area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Ealing North constituency.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan stated the aim of increasing the mental health workforce in England by an additional 27,000 professionals by 2023/24. NHS England and Health Education England are working with local integrated care systems, including in North West London, to confirm plans for service models, supply, retention and recruitment until 2024.
NHS England continues to support local systems, including in North West London, to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of the local mental health workforce. This includes mental health hubs in each integrated care system and occupational health services which are being supported through the Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing national programme.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children under the age of (a) four and (b) 11 were admitted to hospital for tooth extraction due to decay in Ealing North in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) direct employees, (b) contractors and (c) agency workers who work in his Department and relevant agencies and public bodies receive a wage below that of the (i) UK Real Living Wage outside of Greater London and (ii) London Living Wage inside of Greater London, as determined by the Living Wage Foundation.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government is committed to paying a living wage, which is being addressed through the statutory National Living Wage. In April 2022, the National Living Wage increased to £9.50 per hour. By 2024, the Government has committed that the National Living Wage will reach 66% of median earnings in the United Kingdom.
As of 30 June 2022, there were no direct employees in the Department and its executive agencies earning below the Real Living Wage or the London Living Wage. The Department’s arm’s length bodies use the NHS Agenda for Change pay scales, which are determined between the employee and employer, therefore this information is not held centrally.
The Department indirectly employs a number of agency workers and contractors. The rate of pay will be determined by the relevant agency or company, according to the Crown Commercial Service’s minimum pay requirements, which all suppliers must adhere to when negotiating contracts with Government departments.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that staff who work (a) directly or (b) indirectly in his Department and its relevant agencies and public bodies are paid at least the UK real living wage outside Greater London or the London living wage inside Greater London as determined by the Living Wage Foundation.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Departmental employees, including its agencies and public bodies whether employed indirectly or directly, are paid at least the United Kingdom real living wage outside Greater London or the London living wage inside Greater London, depending on the office location they are contracted to.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS Test and Trace emails sent to people have included technical errors in each of the last 12 weeks.
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: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what improvements were made to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing process from (a) 29 December 2020 to (b) 27 January 2021.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Between 29 December 2020 and 27 January 2021, the contact tracing service implemented numerous service improvements including automatic presentation of cases to agents, recorded voicemail messages, changes to scripting, enhanced tracing performance levels and outcomes on positive lateral flow tests, multi-skill training of agents, roll-out of a new quality assurance framework, and improvements to the CTAS (Contact Tracing and Advice Service Software) system including capturing international phone numbers.
The contact tracing service also introduced RTTS (Real Time Technology Services) at the beginning of the year which allowed for a median reduction time of over 6 hours from the time a case was uploaded into CTAS.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
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 make more people with cycstic fibrosis eligible for keftrio treatment; and what the timescale is for that work.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Kaftrio is available to National Health Service patients in line with its marketing authorisation through an interim access deal negotiated between NHS England and NHS Improvement and Vertex, the drug manufacturer. This deal will last for four years and means that eligible NHS patients are among the first in Europe to benefit from access to Kaftrio. The deal has been structured to allow patients access if the license is updated during the term of the agreement.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to surge testing for the South African variant of covid-19 which commenced on 1 February 2021, how many tests have been distributed; and what proportion of those tests were (a) not returned, (b) returned unopened and (c) returned spoiled in (i) EN10, (ii) W7, (iii) N17, (iv) CR4, (v) PR9, (vi) ME15, (vii) GU21 and (viii) WS2 areas and in each (A) postcode and (B) postcode sector in those areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department does not hold the information in the format requested. All polymerase chain reaction test results in surge testing regions are included in the weekly statistics published by Public Health England on the number of confirmed COVID-19 test results, which is available at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing