Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
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 adequacy of the availability of professional training places for medical graduates wishing to specialise in dermatology; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The number of medical specialty training places that are available each year is set by Health Education England (HEE) and based on their assessment of service gaps and predicted workforce needs.
Data from the HEE National Recruitment Office shows that there has been a 100% fill rate in dermatology specialty training in each of the past six years. The numbers of training places available in each year since 2013, the earliest available data, are shown in the following table.
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Total national training numbers | 49 | 46 | 49 | 49 | 46 | 65 |
Source: ST3 recruitment website: https://www.st3recruitment.org.uk/specialties/dermatology
Note: Data includes England, Scotland and Wales
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2019 to Question 216936, for what reason NHS Blood and Transplant has not conducted paid for advertising to inform men who have sex with men of changes to blood donation rules.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
During 2017/18, NHS Blood and Transplant spent £3.14 million on paid media to encourage people to donate blood. All marketing materials promote the ‘eligibility criteria tool’ which is found on the Give Blood website at the following link:
The ‘eligibility criteria tool’ lists the deferral times for a range of scenarios such as travel, medical conditions, tattoos and includes information for men who have sex with men and wish to donate blood. NHS Blood and Transplant is committed to exploring whether a more individualised approach to risk assessment could be taken to donor selection and expects to report on its findings regarding new evidence and new technologies for assessing risk by 2020. NHS Blood and Transplant has and will continue to engage with key stakeholders such as the Terrence Higgins Trust, the National Aids Trust and Stonewall about changes to eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on advertising directly to men who have sex with men to inform them of recent changes to the rules on blood donation.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
In November 2017, when the change to the blood donor criteria for men who have sex with men came into force, a media release was distributed to national, regional and trade media. Posts on blood donation social media channels also directed individuals to this information. NHS Blood and Transplant has and will continue to engage with key stakeholders such as the Terrance Higgins Trust, the National Aids Trust and Stonewall on this issue. Further to this activity, NHS Blood and Transplant has not conducted paid for advertising to advertise the change.
NHS Blood and Transplant is committed to exploring whether a more individualised approach to risk assessment could be taken to donor selection and expects to report on its findings regarding new evidence and new technologies for assessing risk by 2020.