Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many care contacts were carried out by district nurses in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many training places for district nurses her Department plans to make available in September 2025.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce, published on 30 June 2023, sets out an ambition to increase the number of district nursing training places to 842 in 2025.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to (a) implementing the national roll-out of lung cancer screening and (b) increasing CT scanner capacity to support the national roll-out of lung cancer screening in each financial year until 2027-2028.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Targeted Lung Cancer Screening Programme, once fully rolled out in 2030, will offer people aged 55 to 74 who are at high risk of lung cancer, screening every 2 years and will detect around 9,000 cancers earlier each year.
Plans for 2024/25 are currently being finalised by NHS England, including delivery trajectories. Over £100 million of revenue funding is available to support the implementation of the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme in 2024/25.
Plans for 2025/26 and beyond will be subject to the outcome of a future Spending Review.
Assessing the funding required for computed tomography scanner capacity specifically is not possible as much of this capacity is commissioned by NHS England as part of a wider service, using broader programme funds.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
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 standard protocol for the Targeted Lung Health Check programme to reflect work carried out by the National Screening Committee’s lung cancer screening task group.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The standard protocol for the Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) programme was last updated in November 2022, with the protocol and quality assurance standards being regularly reviewed by the programme’s Expert Advisory Group.
When the TLHC protocol is next updated, it will take into account feedback received since the last update, including work carried out by the UK National Screening Committee’s lung cancer screening task group. The focus of the task group has been to support the feasibility of the rollout of a national targeted lung cancer screening programme, and developing aspects of planning and implementation.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish an assessment of the CT scanner capacity required to support the national roll-out of lung cancer screening by 2028.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the roll out of the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme, and has no plans to publish an assessment of the computed tomography scanner capacity required.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions for patients aged 65 and over were the result of a fall in 2012-13.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England published information on finished consultant episodes for admitted patients in 2012/13, which is available at the following link:
This shows in 2012/13, there were 283,794 finished consultant episodes relating to a fall, where the patient was 65 years old or over.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of community diagnostic centres carried out DEXA scanning in 2023; and how many DEXA scans were conducted in community diagnostic centres (a) in total and (b) in each centre.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans were recommended as part of the Sir Mike Richards Diagnostics Recovery and Renewal report as an additional service that could be offered in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) in addition to the core recommended services, and provision of it in CDCs will be determined locally.
As of the end of December 2023, 15 CDCs had reported carrying out DEXA scanning in 2023. The number of CDCs operational at the end of December 2023 was 141. The proportion of the total number of CDCs offering DEXA scans, therefore, was 10.6% as of the end of December 2023.
The total number of DEXA scans conducted in CDCs from 1 January to 31 December 2023 was 25,879. This is published monthly as of April 2023 as part of NHS Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity Data (DM01), which is available at the following link:
We do not hold the number of DEXA scans in each CDC in the format requested and this data can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the additional resources required in (a) primary care, (b) thoracic surgery and (c) systemic anti-cancer therapy clinics following the implementation of a national lung cancer screening programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the roll out of the NHS Targeted Lung Cancer Screening Programme, and work is underway to assess any potential additional resources that may be required at a national level. Primary care capacity has not been directly estimated by NHS England as the impact on capacity is mainly through the identification of incidental findings that require follow-up. This is highly dependent on existing local services and practices, and numbers are not held nationally.
The assessment on thoracic surgery is complex as some surgery would still be required in the absence of screening. In addition, requirements of systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) clinics are equally complex, although some clinics will be required for those diagnosed through the targeted lung cancer screening programme, once fully implemented, the programme could deliver a reduction in SACT demand for patients no longer diagnosed at the latest stage.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Targeted Lung Health Check sites are planned to begin operation in each financial year until 2027-28.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the running of the Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) Programme, and the roll out of the NHS Targeted Lung Cancer Screening Programme. NHS England does not hold the number of TLHC sites that will be in operation in each financial year until 2027/28. This is because the TLHC programme has moved away from the initial pilot sites, and towards a national rollout of a targeted lung cancer screening programme. The focus is therefore on overall population coverage, rather than the number of sites.
Plans for 2024/25 are currently being finalised by NHS England, including trajectories for expected population coverage. Plans from 2025/26 and beyond will be subject to the outcome of a future Spending Review. The programme is expected to have invited approximately 25% of the currently eligible population by the end of March 2024.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cancer treatments were carried out in each of the last two years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes this data on its website. The most recent figures on cancer treatments carried out can be found in this document: