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 estimate her Department has made of the number of FTE Fully qualified GPs excluding GPs in Training Grade practicing in Wirral West constituency (a) on 21 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.
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, how many GP appointments there were in Wirral West constituency in (a) the last 12 months and (b) in 2013.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Wirral South on 18 October 2022 to Question 61077.
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 her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Wirral West constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Wirral West. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Wirral West.
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 she has made of the adequacy of the NHS dentist provision in Wirral West constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Wirral West.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
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 improve access to NHS dental services in Wirral West constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Wirral West.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
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 midwives in Wirral West constituency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
NHS England retains oversight of local workforce plans and is updated on vacancy rates. However, recruitment and retention is undertaken at trust level.
In 2022, an additional £127 million has been invested in the National Health Service maternity workforce and improving neonatal care, including in Wirral West. This is in addition to the £95 million invested in 2021 to fund a further 1,200 midwives and 100 consultant obstetricians. The NHS People Plan focuses on improving the retention of NHS staff by prioritising staff health and wellbeing. In 2022/23, £45 million has been allocated to support the continuation of 40 mental health hubs, the Professional Nurse Advocates programme and expanding the NHS Practitioner Health service.
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 staffing hours required by health and social care providers to submit data to his Department under new requirements arising from the Health and Care Act 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
It is estimated that the staffing hours required would be less than one hour per month per provider.
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 proportion of care home residents who have an essential care giver; what assessment he has made of whether that proportion has increased during the covid-19 outbreak; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of adults in England who have a close relative in a care home who has been informed that care home residents are entitled to visits from an essential care giver in the event that that home is in lockdown.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No specific estimate has been made as the Government’s guidance no longer refers to essential care givers. The Government's updated guidance now states that residents should receive visits from loved ones, including during outbreaks of infectious diseases within a home or when a resident is in isolation, where the guidance states each resident may have at least one visitor.
However, in the week ending 29 June 2022, 95.4% of care homes in England accommodated residents receiving visitors.