Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 help reduce waiting times for NHS services in Bournemouth West constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have wasted no time in getting to work cutting National Health Service waiting lists and ensuring people have the best possible experience during their care, including in the Bournemouth West constituency. We promised change, and we’ve delivered early, with a reduction in the list of over 190,000 pathways, and two million extra appointments provided.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015.
The newly published Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of maternity services in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The maternity services at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) have made many improvements since the most recent Care Quality Commission inspection in 2022. Maternity is moving from St Mary’s in Poole to the Beach building at Royal Bournemouth Hospital in April. This is part of the £500 million investment across UHD’s hospitals to help improve healthcare for the residents of Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, and beyond.
Since September 2024, the service has become Maternity and Neonatal, working as one department to ensure families in Dorset have the most joined up care. UHD has recruited all obstetric and neonatal consultant posts and continues to have excellent retention rates for midwives and neonatal nurses. UHD have also introduced more senior midwifery posts in the last two years, to ensure more senior support on the labour ward and within its audit and practice development team.
Nationally, we continue to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow our maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women receive safe, compassionate care. We are also looking at how we better support trusts failing on maternity care to make rapid improvements, and we are already training thousands more midwives to better support women throughout their pregnancy and beyond.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 improve NHS maternity services (a) nationally and (b) in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The maternity services at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) have made many improvements since the most recent Care Quality Commission inspection in 2022. Maternity is moving from St Mary’s in Poole to the Beach building at Royal Bournemouth Hospital in April. This is part of the £500 million investment across UHD’s hospitals to help improve healthcare for the residents of Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, and beyond.
Since September 2024, the service has become Maternity and Neonatal, working as one department to ensure families in Dorset have the most joined up care. UHD has recruited all obstetric and neonatal consultant posts and continues to have excellent retention rates for midwives and neonatal nurses. UHD have also introduced more senior midwifery posts in the last two years, to ensure more senior support on the labour ward and within its audit and practice development team.
Nationally, we continue to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow our maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women receive safe, compassionate care. We are also looking at how we better support trusts failing on maternity care to make rapid improvements, and we are already training thousands more midwives to better support women throughout their pregnancy and beyond.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the uplift will be to general dental service contracts for 2024-25; and what his planned timetable is to apply such uplift.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent pay review body for doctors and dentists recommended a 6% pay uplift for 2024/25. The Government accepted the recommendation and has proposed that National Health Service primary care dentistry contract values be uplifted by 4.64%, net of pay (6%) and expenses (1.68%) elements.
The Government is acting to consider and implement the overall uplift to contract values as soon as possible.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children aged four and under have been admitted to hospital for tooth extraction due to decay in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following tables show the number of Finished Consultant Episodes for tooth extraction, with caries as the primary diagnosis code, from 2018/19 to 2022/23:
| Age 0 to 4 years old |
2022/23 | 4,383 |
| Age 0 to 5 years |
2021/22 | 7,496 |
2020/21 | 4,441 |
2019/20 | 10,581 |
2018/19 | 11,397 |
Source: the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ annual statistics on tooth extractions, available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hospital-based-tooth-extractions-in-0-to-19-year-olds
Data in 2022/23 was reported for the age band zero to four years old. However, data for all previous years was reported for the age band zero to five years old. The data is reported as the number of Finished Consultant Episodes, therefore the data does not represent the number of individual children who received these treatments, as one child may have had more than one Finished Consultant Episode.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 improve (a) access to and (b) the provision of NHS dentistry in Bournemouth West constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. In the 24 months to June 2023, 245,772 adults saw an NHS dentist in the Dorset ICB, equal to 39% of the adult population in the ICB. In the 12 months to June 2023, 73,084 children saw an NHS dentist in Dorset, equal to 51% of the child population in the ICB.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of NHS dental provision in (a) Bournemouth West constituency and (b) Dorset.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. In the 24 months to June 2023, 245,772 adults saw an NHS dentist in the Dorset ICB, equal to 39% of the adult population in the ICB. In the 12 months to June 2023, 73,084 children saw an NHS dentist in Dorset, equal to 51% of the child population in the ICB.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental practices offered NHS services in Bournemouth West constituency in each year since 2015.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While data is not held for each year since 2015, as of 10 July 2024, there are 18 dental practices currently offering National Health Services in the Bournemouth West constituency. This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-Dentist