Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many premature babies were born at between 22 and 24 weeks of gestation in the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the number of all live births and those with gestational age of 22 weeks, 23 weeks and 24 weeks in England and Wales between 2017 and 2021, the most recent five-year period for which data is available:
Year | All live births | Live births with gestational age between 22 and 24 weeks, inclusive |
2017 | 678,728 | 972 |
2018 | 656,723 | 894 |
2019 | 639, 987 | 890 |
2020 | 613,231 | 784 |
2021 | 624,162 | 796 |
Source: Office for National Statistics Birth Characteristics
Note: Still births are not included as they are only measured from gestational age of 24 weeks onwards.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children in England have been issued puberty blockers since 2019.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have always been clear that children’s safety and well-being is paramount, so we welcomed NHS England’s landmark decision to ban routine use puberty blockers to children experiencing gender dysphoria. This decision was based on the available evidence and expert clinical opinion.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists or puberty blockers are used to treat several medical conditions in children and young people. These can include precocious puberty, some forms of cancer, endometriosis, and gender dysphoria.
Information on the clinical indication for which these medications have been prescribed is not held centrally. The following table shows the number of identifiable patients prescribed and dispensed gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists for all purposes, in primary and secondary care in England from 2019 to September 2022:
Financial year | Patients identified |
2018/19 | 1,072 |
2019/20 | 1,048 |
2020/21 | 936 |
2021/22 | 864 |
April to September 2022 | 693 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
Note: Prescriptions have only been included where a National Health Service number has been identified during processing, and an age has been recorded. The same patients may appear in multiple years.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase adult social care capacity in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has made up to £8.6 billion available in additional funding over this financial year and next, to support adult social care and discharge. This includes nearly £2 billion being made available to local authorities over two years through the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund, which is specifically designed to support increased adult social care capacity. Local authorities can choose to use the funding to increase fee rates paid to adult social care providers, increase adult social care workforce capacity and retention, and reduce adult social care waiting times. Lincolnshire County Council received a total of just over £13 million through this fund in 2023/24, and are set to receive nearly £15 million in 2024/25. This is in addition to the broader funding that is available to Lincolnshire to spend on adult social care.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS employees are based outside the United Kingdom.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP surgeries in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire have closed since 2015.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data provided shows that within the South Holland and the Deepings constituency, there have been no general practice (GP) closures. This includes those which have become branch practices, and is out of a total of 10 GPs across 14 sites, that were open at some point between January 2015 and March 2024. In the county of Lincolnshire, 17 GPs have closed, five of which have become branch practices. This is out of a total of 97 GPs across 126 sites, that were open at some point between January 2015 and March 2024.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average ambulance response times in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the East Midlands were in the latest period for which figures are available; and what steps she is taking to help reduce ambulance response times in those areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Lincolnshire and the East Midlands are served by the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS). The following table shows the average EMAS response time, broken down by response time category, in January 2024:
Response time category | Response time |
Category 1 | 00:09:08 |
Category 2 | 00:49:59 |
Category 3 | 02:48:54 |
Category 4 | 02:48:56 |
Source: Ambulance response times are published monthly by NHS England, and are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/
Our Delivery Plan for Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care Services sets out a range of measures to support the reduction of Category 2 response times to 30 minutes on average. To increase capacity and improve ambulance response times, ambulance services are receiving £200 million of additional funding this year, alongside the delivery of new ambulances.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department provided funding to the charity Mermaids UK in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department provided no funding to the charity Mermaids in 2021, 2022 or 2023.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who were (a) treated with contaminated blood products and (b) given contaminated blood transfusions by the NHS in (i) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (ii) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has not made an estimate of the number of people who were treated with contaminated blood products and given contaminated blood transfusions by the National Health Service, in South Holland and the Deepings constituency and Lincolnshire.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on how many people not legally resident in the UK were charged for healthcare in (a) NHS hospitals and (b) doctors surgeries in (i) 2021, (ii) 2022 and (iii) 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not collect or hold the requested information.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing community pharmacists to have a bigger role in diagnosis of chronic kidney disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance Chronic kidney disease: Assessment and management [NG203], updated in November 2021, sets out best practice for clinicians in the diagnosis and management of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The guidance covers: monitoring for those patients at risk; pharmacological management; and referral where appropriate. The guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng203
In addition to evidence-based guidance to support clinicians to diagnose problems of the kidney, we are also working to detect people at risk of kidney disease through the NHS Health Check Programme. The programme, which is available for everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 years old who are not already on a chronic disease register, assesses people’s health and risk of developing certain health problems. Using this information, patients are supported to make behavioural changes and access treatment which helps to prevent and detect kidney disease earlier.
We are investing in new delivery models for the NHS Health Check, including nearly £17 million for the development and roll-out of an innovative new national digital NHS Health Check available this spring, and will give people a choice about where and when to have a check.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed CKD and glomerulonephritis in 2011, concluding that a population-wide screening programme would not be recommended, and has not recently looked at the evidence for a targeted programme. The UK NSC can be alerted to any new peer-reviewed evidence published which may support the case for a new screening programme. Proposals to change or review a topic early can be submitted via the UK NSC’s annual call, which will open in July 2024. At present, there are no plans to expand national services in community pharmacy beyond the recently introduced Pharmacy First service.