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 NICE is taking steps to make Enhertu available to the National Health Service to treat incurable HER2-low secondary breast cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently developing guidance for the National Health Service on whether Enhertu can be recommended for routine NHS funding, based on an assessment of the costs and benefits. The NICE was unfortunately unable to recommend Enhertu as a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources in its final draft guidance published on 5 March 2024. Stakeholders have had an opportunity to appeal against the NICE’s draft recommendations, and the NICE will consider any appeals through the established process, and will publish final guidance 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, how many people are employed by NHS England in roles relating to equality, diversity and inclusivity as of 26 March 2024.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are 51 staff with equality, diversity, or inclusion in their job title at NHS England, as of 26 February 2024. This covers a wide range of roles both supporting NHS England as an employer, and facing the wider National Health Service system, with some of these roles also covering other areas of NHS policy. NHS England has reduced the number of roles focused on equality, diversity and inclusion as part of its merger with NHS Digital and Health Education England. The roles that remain are essential to helping the NHS meet its legal duties in the Equality Act 2010 and the principles that guide the NHS Constitution. This includes overseeing statutory programmes that are focused on tackling discrimination by some staff which includes disabled staff, as well as roles dealing with the sexual safety of staff and patients in the NHS.
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 (a) doctors and (b) nurses were employed by United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The table below shows the number of full-time equivalent doctors and nurses, the latter of which includes health visitors, employed by the United Lincolnshire Hospital NHS Trust, in December of each of the last five years:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Doctors | 802 | 882 | 922 | 997 | 1,080 |
Nurses | 1,626 | 1,611 | 1,723 | 1,809 | 2,105 |
Source: data is based on the monthly National Health Service workforce statistics published by NHS England, available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
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 the number of operations that were (a) cancelled and (b) delayed by more than two months due to the industrial action by junior doctors in 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of operations that were cancelled due to the industrial action by junior doctors in 2023, was 157,570. Data is not held regarding operations delayed by more than two months. The National Health Service is prioritising urgent, emergency, and cancer care, and will continue to do its best to maintain appointments and elective procedures wherever possible. Cancelled appointments that need to be rescheduled, will be done so as a priority. Data on the impact of industrial action is available here:
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 help reduce waiting times for children in need of kidney transplants.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with NHS Blood and Transplant to help reduce waiting times for children in need of kidney transplants. This includes implementing initiatives to improve the use of living donor kidney transplantation in paediatric centres, engaging with transplant centres to review patients who are too unwell to receive a transplant, and reducing long waiters, which are patients who wait more than 104 days for a transplant.
Nation-wide campaigns have been developed to increase paediatric registrations on the organ donor register, for example Ralph’s campaign, and the school’s education programme has been refreshed for younger children. A paediatric perfusion programme is also being developed to increase the use of kidneys from donors after circulatory death for paediatric 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, 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.