Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
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 reduce waiting times for elective surgeries in Reading East constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including in Reading East. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million additional checks and procedures and 30% further elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels. A proportion of this funding will be invested in workforce capacity and training and we have committed to invest £5.9 billion for new beds, equipment and technology.
The target to eliminate waiting times of two years or more for elective procedures was met in July 2022 and we aim to eliminate waiting time of eighteen months or more by April 2023. This will be achieved through increasing capacity, seeking alternate capacity in other trusts or the independent sector and engaging with patients to understand choices made regarding their care.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
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 Reading East 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 £8bn 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 GP surgeries, including in Reading East. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workload such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and freeing up funding rules to widen the types of staff that work in general practice, including in Reading East.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
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 increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Reading East constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.
National Health Service breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of care homes in Reading East constituency held a Care Quality Commission rating of good or above on 12 October 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
As at 12 October 2022, 14 or 82.4% of care homes in the Reading East constituency are rated by the Care Quality Commission as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
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 social care capacity in Reading East constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
No specific assessment has been made. Local authorities have a responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to ensure that the care needs of the local population are met.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the measures in the Government’s Our plan for patients plan announced in September 2022 will be implemented.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
‘Our plan for patients’ commits to increase the number of 999 and 111 call handlers by December 2022, launch a £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund for winter 2022/23, and open an additional 7,000 National Health Service beds. The relevant national statistics and published performance data will allow progress to be assessed and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what immediate support her Department will offer to people unable to find an NHS dentist accepting new patients in their area.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no geographical restrictions on which practice a patient may attend. NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre or NHS 111 can also advise patients seeking urgent care. During the pandemic, over 750 urgent care centres were available to provide National Health Service dental care to patients and many of these are still in operation and can be accessed via NHS 111.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take urgent steps to improve the (a) availability and (b) quality of NHS dental treatment in Reading East.
Answered by Will Quince
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 Reading East. 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 reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
There is a regulatory system for NHS dentistry, including the General Dental Council and the Care Quality Commission which ensure that standards of care are met. If patients wish to make a complaint about a dentist or dental practice, it should be raised with the practice the first instance within 12 months of receiving treatment. Patients can also contact NHS England, which is responsible for NHS dental services.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress her Department has made with Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust on plans to rebuild the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A new hospital for Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust at the Royal Berkshire Hospital forms part of the Government’s new hospital programme. Delivery of the new hospitals is grouped into cohorts based on an assessment of readiness to progress and the extent to which new hospitals can benefit from advantages of delivery through a national programme. The new hospital for Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is in a later cohort, with delivery expected in the latter half of the decade.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of how effectively the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is responding to current pressures; and in what circumstances the Trust would take emergency measures, such as requesting military support.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
South Central Ambulance Service remains at Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) level 3. Escalation measures are taken under the REAP framework, which provides ambulance services with a coordinated approach to managing high demand or other situations which affect ambulance service response. REAP levels are kept under review by ambulance trusts, with a formal weekly decision taken based on the expected operating level for the next seven days, with the ability between to update this level based on changing information or intelligence.