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, with reference to the Answer of 28 March 2022 to Question 125389 on Protective clothing: Procurement, how much his Department has spent on defending legal challenges from the Good Law Project regarding the use of the high priority lane for personal protective equipment contracts; and how much was paid by the Good Law Project towards the Department's costs.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Up to the end of October 2023, the Department has spent £3,884,214 excluding VAT on defending legal challenges from the Good Law Project. £337,000 has been recovered to date from the Good Law Project in costs.
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 plans NHS England has to update the Accessible Information Standard.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers must comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. NHS England has completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that everyone’s communication needs are met in health and care provision. The review considered the effectiveness of the current AIS, how the standard is implemented and enforced in practice, and identified recommendations for improvement. The revised standard will be published in due course.
Following publication of the revised standard, NHS England will continue work to support implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it.
These actions should support better and more consistent implementation of the standard.
In addition to the AIS, following Royal Assent of the British Sign Language Act 2022, the Government Communication Service will promote and facilitate the use of British Sign Language (BSL) in communications with the public. This is expected to support BSL users to access public services, including health and care services. Our work to promote BSL builds on a longstanding departmental commitment to ensuring our content is accessible for disabled audiences. Our GOV.UK and social media content closely follows guidance from the Government Digital Service. All videos are captioned for those who are hard of hearing, graphics have accessible texts and colours for those with reading difficulties and have voiceover descriptions for the partially sighted.
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 her Department is taking to increase the number of midwives trained in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Nationally, since 2021 we have invested an additional £165 million a year to improve maternity and neonatal care, this will rise to an additional £186 million a year from 2024/25 with part year effect in 2023/24. This will improve the quality of care for mothers and babies and increase the number of midwifery posts available.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years.
As part of the plan, we aim to expand the number of midwifery training places from 3,778 to 4,269 by 2028.
The plan also sets out an ambition for 5% of midwives to train through an apprenticeship by 2028, compared to less than 1% currently.
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 he has had recent discussions with the General Medical Council on how many doctors have been struck off the medical register since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not had any recent discussions with the General Medical Council on how many doctors have been successfully sued since 2010; or how many doctors have been struck off the medical register since 2010.
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 he has had recent discussions with the General Medical Council on how many doctors have been successfully sued since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not had any recent discussions with the General Medical Council on how many doctors have been successfully sued since 2010; or how many doctors have been struck off the medical register since 2010.
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, when she plans to publish the final myalgic encephalomyelitis delivery plan.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will respond to its consultation on the cross-government Interim Delivery Plan on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and publish the final Plan in due course.
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 reduce waiting lists for enrolment with NHS dentists in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients do not routinely join National Health Service dental waiting lists and are only registered with a dental practice for a course of treatment. In July 2022 we announced a package of reforms to improve access to NHS dentistry. This included changes to banding of courses of treatments and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value.
From 1 April 2023 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. ICBs are responsible for identifying areas of need and determine the priorities for investment. We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will include how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients.
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 he is taking to improve care for patients with acquired brain injuries.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the cross-Government Acquired Brain Injury Strategy, we will improve experiences and outcomes for people who live with acquired brain injury by outlining what survivors of acquired brain injury and their families should expect from public services, including health and care services. We expect to publish the Strategy next year.
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 he is taking to improve care for patients with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions 47 specialised cystic fibrosis centres for adults and children across England, in addition to supporting the optimal monitoring of patients with cystic fibrosis at home, and supporting best practice in remote consultations.
Through these centres, NHS England provides a range of innovative treatments including inhaled therapies such as nebulised antibiotics. Since 2019, thousands of people with cystic fibrosis have been able to benefit from licensed treatments – firstly Orkambi and Symkeviand then Kaftrio, following its marketing authorisation in 2020. Access to these treatments is provided under the terms of a commercial agreement reached between the manufacturer, Vertex and NHS England, with the full support of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Within the agreement between NHS England and Vertex, there is a flexible commercial mechanism to ensure continued access for patients already receiving any of the licensed treatments following the conclusion of a full NICE evaluation.
On 3 November 2023, NICE published a consultation on draft guidance that did not recommend these treatments as a cost-effective use of NHS resources. This draft is an initial step in the review of these medicines and does not affect patients’ continued access to these drugs on the NHS in any way. Eligible children and adults with cystic fibrosis can continue to receive ongoing treatment and be initiated onto treatment with these drugs, as clinically appropriate.
NHS England remains committed to ensuring that these life-changing cystic fibrosis medicines are available to everyone who may benefit, now and in the future, and will continue to work with Vertex and NICE through the next stages of the appraisal process to make this possible in a way that is fair to patients and taxpayers.
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 his Department plans to increase the number of dental school places available in 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no current plans to increase the number of dental school places that it funds in 2024. The NHS Long Term Workforce published on 30 June 2023 contained a commitment to expand dentistry training places by 40%, beginning from the 2026 academic year, so that there are over 1,100 places by 2031/32.