Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of using NHS hospital facilities to treat private patients on waiting times for elective surgery in (a) Wirral West constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. No specific assessment has been made of the impact that delivering care for private patients has on National Health Service hospitals or elective waiting times.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of patients who paid for private healthcare services in NHS hospitals in (a) Wirral West constituency and (b) England in 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. No specific assessment has been made of the impact that delivering care for private patients has on National Health Service hospitals or elective waiting times.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of beds in hospital trusts in (a) Wirral West constituency and (b) England were allocated to private patients in 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. No specific assessment has been made of the impact that delivering care for private patients has on National Health Service hospitals or elective waiting times.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of patients who waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E in 2022 in Wirral West constituency in the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific estimate has been made. Constituency level data on the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from accident and emergency is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 ensure that women who (a) are pregnant and (b) have given birth in the last 12 months are aware that they can apply for maternity exemption certificates.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Business Services Authority promotes maternity exemption certificates and information is provided via NHS.UK. The certificates are also promoted through social media, online resources, media releases and through healthcare bulletins. Healthcare professionals, such as midwives and general practitioners, apply for maternity exemption certificates on behalf of the patient and ensure that individuals are aware of the entitlement.
Some patients entitled to a maternity exemption certificate may already hold an exemption for another reason, such as an eligible medical condition or through the NHS Low Income Scheme.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to backdate maternity exemption certificates by more than one month from the date of the application.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no current plans.
The National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015 states that a maternity exemption certificate (Matex) must be backdated one month before the date on which the application is received by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who are delegated to process applications for Matex certificates on behalf of the Secretary of State. The application process requires that a health care professional such as a midwife or a GP must authorise the application to confirm the patient’s pregnancy and expected due date. The NHS BSA must then issue the Matex on this basis.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of maternity exemption certificates that were issued in 2021 in (a) England and (b) Wirral.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In 2021, 461,226 maternity exemption certificates were issued in England and 1,736 were issued in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cancelled operations there were in Wirral West constituency in the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Wirral West constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan stated the aim of increasing the mental health workforce in England by an additional 27,000 professionals by 2023/24. NHS England and Health Education England are working with local integrated care systems, including in Cheshire and Merseyside, to confirm plans for service models, supply, retention and recruitment until 2024.
NHS England continues to support local systems, including in Cheshire and Merseyside, to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of the local mental health workforce. This includes mental health hubs in each integrated care system and occupational health services which are being supported through the Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing national programme.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of malnutrition in Wirral West constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No specific assessment has been made.