Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is taking to ensure transparency in the (a) operation and (b) maintenance of the UK orphan medicines register.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care and regulates medicine, medical devices and blood components for transfusion in the UK, with responsibility for ensuring medicines meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy.
The United Kingdom Orphan Register is publicly available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/orphan-registered-medicinal-products/orphan-register
The register is updated by the MHRA when a new orphan medicinal product or new orphan indication is authorised or their market protection expires. A process of checks to be carried out on the register on a periodic basis has been implemented to ensure that accuracy of the website is maintained.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what structures are in place within the NHS to (a) oversee and (b) manage financial efficiency in healthcare settings; and whether his Department has considered establishing a dedicated executive function to support this work.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Financial efficiency within the National Health Service is managed primarily by integrated care boards (ICBs) and NHS trusts, which are responsible for local financial planning, budget control, and delivery of efficiency savings. Progress is monitored and supported by both NHS England regional and national teams including as part of the new Financial Performance and Improvement Programme. For example, as part of 2025/2026 planning, NHS England provided every provider and system with a tailored and benchmarked productivity and efficiency data pack setting out opportunities to support the development of efficiency and savings schemes.
NHS England have also established an executive chaired group to oversee the development of a coherent, organisation-wide strategy and associated policies for delivering programmes to improve productivity and efficiency across the NHS.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department’s policy is on the use of cash for food vendor payments in NHS hospitals.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not have a policy on the use of cash for the payment of food vendors in National Health Service hospitals. These decisions are taken locally by NHS organisations.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of midwifery recruitment freezes on maternal health outcomes in England; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce staffing shortages in maternity services in areas where (a) hospital access times are longer and (b) home birth provision has declined.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the retention and recruitment challenges that face the National Health Service.
NHS England is leading a range of initiatives to boost the retention of existing staff. This includes building a compassionate and inclusive culture, supporting staff wellbeing, and promoting flexible working opportunities.
On 11 August, we announced the Graduate Guarantee for nurses and midwives. The Graduate Guarantee will ensure that there are enough positions for every newly qualified midwife in England. The package of measures will unlock thousands of jobs and will ensure thousands of new posts are easier to access by removing barriers for NHS trusts, creating opportunities for graduates and ensuring a seamless transition from training to employment.
Vacant maternity support worker posts will be temporarily converted to band 5 midwifery roles, backed by £8 million to create new opportunities specifically for newly qualified midwives and to further ease the recruitment strain.
These new measures aim to tackle graduates’ concerns about job availability and ensure the NHS has the right staff to provide the best possible care to patients everywhere.
Targeted retention work for midwives is being undertaken by NHS England, led by the Chief Nursing Officer for England. This work contains a range of measures, including creation of a midwifery and nursing retention self-assessment tool, mentoring schemes, strengthened advice and support on pensions, and embedding flexible retirement options. NHS England has also invested in unit-based retention leads which, alongside investment in workforce capacity, has seen a reduction in vacancy, leaver and turnover rates.
There are four nationally run programmes to develop midwifery staff, at bands 6 and above, from ethnic minority groups to better support patients, in addition to local initiatives to better reflect the community of the women and babies they support.
Responsibility for the delivery, implementation and funding decisions for services ultimately rests with the appropriate NHS commissioner. This includes waiting times and homebirth provisions.
NHS commissioners are expected to develop clear plans for reverting temporary service changes or developing plans for the permanent reconfiguration of the service. All service changes should be based on clear evidence that they will deliver better outcomes for patients.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his planned timeline is for publishing a Government response to the Hughes Report, published on 7 February 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her Report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government Departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s Report.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
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 expand access to degree apprenticeships in midwifery for (a) mature students, (b) career changers and (c) other people who face (i) financial and (ii) practical barriers to undertaking traditional university training routes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and will treat patients on time again. This will include how we ensure we train healthcare staff, through all training routes including apprenticeships, to support patients in all of our communities.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
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 raise public awareness of the symptoms of chronic urinary tract infections.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides information on the symptoms of urinary tract infections (UTIs), including chronic UTIs, at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/urinary-tract-infections-utis/
The Department currently has no plans to raise public awareness of the symptoms of chronic UTIs. However, the Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), is funding research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of UTIs, including chronic UTIs. This research includes the development of antimicrobial-impregnated catheters to reduce episodes of catheter-associated UTIs as well as the TOUCAN study, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.phctrials.ox.ac.uk/recruiting-trials/toucan-platform-for-uti-diagnostic-evaluation
This study is evaluating rapid point of care UTI diagnostic tests in general practice surgeries that not only enable faster detection of UTIs but also provide real-time information on antibiotic resistance, ensuring patients receive the correct treatment.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
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 reduce waiting times for adolescent mental health services in Berkshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need and that waits for mental health services are too long across England, including Berkshire. We are determined to change that as part of our shift to prevention and earlier intervention and in line with our Plan for Change.
The Department’s Spending Review settlement means that annual National Health Service day-to-day spending will increase by £29 billion in real terms, representing a £53 billion cash uplift, by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24.
In the Spending Review announcement, we have confirmed that we will fulfil the Government’s commitments to recruit an additional 8,500 additional mental health staff by the end of the Parliament and expand mental health support teams in schools in England to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's planned timetable is for publishing its plans to reduce the time taken for patients to receive mental health treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Long waits for mental health services are being driven by increasing demand to a system in desperate need of change. The Government is already responding by delivering new and innovative models of care in the community. We are piloting innovative models of care in the community, including six neighbourhood adult mental health centres that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and bring together community, crisis, and inpatient care.
NHS England Planning Guidance for 2025/26 makes clear that for this year, to support reform and improvements, we expect all providers to reduce the variation in children and young people accessing services and improve productivity. We are also improving data quality so we can support providers to understand demand across their areas. Since July 2023, NHS England has included waiting times metrics for referrals to urgent and community-based mental health services in its monthly mental health statistics publication to help services to target the longest waits.
It is important that mental health services within the National Health Service work closely with the voluntary sector to deliver new models of care. The 10-Year Health Plan will be published shortly, and this will set out how the overall health system will run.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a seven-day Community Diagnostic Centre at St Mark's Hospital in Maidenhead.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Slough Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) is currently delivering temporary activity at St Mark’s Hospital in Maidenhead, and has done so since January 2024, in addition to activity at the permanent site at Upton Community Hospital, whilst the new facility is being completed. Once the new facility at Upton Community Hospital is completed later in 2025, all diagnostic activity will move to Upton Community Hospital, where it is expected that Slough CDC will be open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Elective Reform Plan, published on 6 January 2025, sets out that we will increase the number of CDCs offering services 12 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as delivering additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.
NHS England is working with local National Health Service systems to identify the most appropriate locations for investments, including new CDCs. A key factor they will consider is that new CDCs are positioned in a location which addresses local need and will address health inequalities. Details will be set out in due course.