Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
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 the Hospice at Home programme delivered by hospices such as Dr Kershaw’s in Oldham on patients.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Charitable hospices are independent, autonomous organisations that provide a wide range of services, many of which go beyond what statutory services are legally required to be delivered. Therefore, the Government does not collect or assess data on these services.
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of care services to meet the needs of their local populations, which can include hospice services, delivered both in inpatient units and in people’s homes, available within the ICB catchment.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
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 current inpatient capacity and waiting times for secure mental health placements for individuals detained under the Mental Health Act in (a) England (b) Greater Manchester (c) Oldham.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Nationally, NHS England collates information from annual contracts to understand the commissioned and available capacity across all adult forensic services, including high, medium, and low secure. A change notification process is managed nationally to capture in-year changes to this capacity and to monitor provider-reported activity via the Mental Health Services Dataset. NHS England does not hold information about waiting times for all individuals detained under the Mental Health Act who require admission to an adult forensic service except where the individual is transferred from prison to hospital.
NHS England and the Greater Manchester Adult Secure Provider Collaborative continue to work closely with National Health Service trusts and independent sector organisations to monitor capacity and demand for secure mental health beds for the population of Greater Manchester.
Whilst work is in progress to achieve more timely transfers into secure mental health facilities for prisoners, and work with providers around reducing overall secure length of stay, based on current demand there are sufficient adult secure beds across Greater Manchester and the wider North West region, including Oldham, to meet demand against the national adult secure specification.
Waiting list numbers are stable and consistent which indicates that commissioned provision is sufficient to meet need. As waiting lists are managed on a clinical priority basis and due to the low volumes of people requiring secure mental health services, it is difficult to provide a meaningful statistic about waiting times for admission.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, following the recent National Living Wage increase announced in the Budget, what assumptions have been made on future wage differential compression for social care workers currently earning just above the current National Living Wage.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
When assessing National Living Wage (NLW) increases, we assume that individuals earning at or near the NLW will receive a pay increase equivalent to the full NLW uplift, whilst pay growth for higher earning workers will increase in line with forecasts for average earnings. This assumption is based on robust external evidence on the impact of increases in the NLW on pay in the United Kingdom labour market. However, employers are ultimately responsible for the implementation of NLW increases and impacts may therefore vary locally.
The Government is committed to transforming adult social care and supporting adult social care workers, turning the page on decades of low pay and insecurity. That is why we plan to introduce the first ever Fair Pay Agreement in 2028, backed by £500 million of funding to improve pay and conditions for the adult social care workforce. This represents the most significant investment in improving pay and conditions for adult social care staff to date.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of vulnerable users of telecare alarms who have (a) successfully transferred and (b) not yet transferred from analogue to digital systems.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is limited data available on the number of telecare users in England and/or the United Kingdom. Our best available estimate comes from the TEC Services Association, who estimate that there are upwards of two million telecare users in the UK.
To improve our evidence base, the Department has commissioned an independent technical advisor, FarrPoint, to carry out surveys of telecare services providers and call handling services. This research is currently live and aims to identify the number of analogue and digital telecare devices in use.
The Department also works closely with the Telecare Action Board and Partners in Care and Health to monitor the progress of the digital phone switchover.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Oldham, Chadderton and Royton are being considered for additional funding for proposed new Neighbourhood Health Centres.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
At the Autumn Budget, we announced our commitment to deliver 250 neighbourhood health centres (NHCs) through the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme. This will deliver NHCs through a mixture of refurbishments to expand and improve sites over the next three years and new-build sites opening in the medium term. The first 120 NHCs are due to be operational by 2030, delivered through public private partnerships and 50 refurbishments through public capital.
Nationwide coverage will take time, but we will start in the areas of greatest need where healthy life expectancy is lowest, including rural towns and communities with higher deprivation levels targeting places where healthy life expectancy is lowest and delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning, which includes planning, securing, and monitoring, general practice services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. Both ICBs and local health systems will be responsible for determining the most appropriate locations for NHCs.
We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, that will mean the service will look different in rural communities, coastal towns or deprived inner cities.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
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 MRI scanning waiting lists in (a) all Greater Manchester hospitals (b) Royal Oldham Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on diagnostic lists and waiting times is published at a National Health Service trust level and is available in the document attached. We do not hold data on waiting lists for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in the Royal Oldham Hospital.
The following table shows the number of patients waiting for an MRI scan in all acute Greater Manchester NHS trusts, as well as the number and percentage waiting more than six weeks, with data being correct as of September 2025:
Name of acute NHS trust | Total waiting list for MRI scans as of September 2025 | Number waiting more than six weeks for an MRI scan as of September 2025 | Percentage waiting more than six weeks for an MRI scan as of September 2025 |
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust | 637 | 9 | 1.4% |
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust | 7,807 | 1,515 | 19.4% |
Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust, of which the Royal Oldham Hospital is a part | 6,102 | 180 | 2.9% |
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust | 1,145 | 8 | 0.7% |
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust | 912 | 0 | 0% |
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust | 412 | 8 | 1.9% |
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust | 2,675 | 353 | 13.2% |
Total | 19,690 | 2,073 | 10.5% |
The national six week waiting times standard is that no more than one percent of patients waiting for an MRI scan should wait more than six weeks, or 42 days.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
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 adequacy of the network of publicly available defibrillators; whether there are any blackspots; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that all areas have access to defibrillators.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department’s Community Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Fund delivered 3,080 new AEDs to local communities between September 2023 and February 2025. These AEDs were prioritised for areas of greatest need. This included remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.
The Government’s position is that local communities are best placed to make decisions about procuring, locating, and maintaining AEDs. Over 110,000 defibrillators are registered in the United Kingdom on The Circuit, the independent AED database. Over 30,000 of these have been added in the past two years, many as a result of local community led action.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of community dementia services in England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). We expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
We will deliver the first ever modern service framework for frailty and dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026. The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of winter capacity in (a) all Greater Manchester hospitals and (b) Royal Oldham Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We continue to monitor the impact of winter pressures on the National Health Service over the winter months.
The Department is continuing to take key steps to ensure the health service is prepared for the colder months. This includes taking actions to try and reduce demand pressure on accident and emergency departments, increasing vaccination rates, and offering health checks to the most vulnerable, as well as stress-testing integrated care boards and trust winter plans to ensure they include a focus on reducing bed occupancy ahead of Christmas, creating additional capacity and improving patient flow.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential impact on in-patients of charging in hospitals for TV, WiFi and telephone services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made centrally of the potential impact on in-patients of charging in hospitals for television, WiFi, and telephone services.
National Health Service providers are locally responsible for the provision of bedside television and similar services, including the charges for them. If patients do not wish to or are unable to afford the cost of the bedside television, they should still be able to watch the free to view television via their own devices and local hospital Wi-Fi, or in the hospital day rooms or communal areas.