Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce the time taken for patients to be fitted with prosthetics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to putting patients first. This means making sure that patients are seen on time, and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care, including patients awaiting a prosthetic fitting.
Following amputation, patients are referred to their local prosthetic centre for a limb fitting assessment and ongoing care. As part of the patients' assessment, a clinical judgement will be made to ensure the wound is healed in advance of a prosthetic limb being fitted. This timescale varies depending on individual patient clinical circumstances.
Once a patient is assessed as clinically ready for a prosthesis, they should be scanned or cast within two weeks, and receive their socket and prosthesis within four weeks from the date of the scan or casting. The national service specification has recently been reviewed, and the updated version is expected to be published in 2025. This is expected to include metrics which can be used to monitor the quality of care, such as the time between the date of the scan or casting and the patients receiving their socket and prosthesis.
The majority of prosthetics will be fitted in outpatient settings, and the vast majority of elective care takes place in an outpatient setting, so it is a top priority to ensure that those services are delivered efficiently, in a timely way, and that they prioritise patient experience. To tackle waiting lists, we will also deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments per week during our first year in Government as a first step in our commitment to ensuring that patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks. We will be supporting National Health Service trusts to deliver these through innovation, sharing best practice to increase productivity and efficiency, and ensuring the best value is delivered.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of waiting times for ADHD assessments in Halton.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is, at present, no single, established dataset that can be used to monitor waiting times for the assessment and diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) nationally, or for individual organisations or geographies in England. Although the data requested is not held centrally, it may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts or commissioners.
We are supporting a taskforce that NHS England has established to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, including timely access to services and support.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England will continue to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services, to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 delays in ADHD assessments on children.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the importance of early identification and timely diagnosis of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), so that an individual’s needs can be identified sooner, and so that appropriate health, social care, and education interventions, advice, and support can be offered.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available the appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including ADHD services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines. This includes support for children and young people whilst waiting for an assessment.
We are supporting an independent cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has established to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, including timely access to services and support. The ADHD taskforce will also work closely with the Department for Education’s neurodivergence task and finish group.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission a review of the reasons that registered nurses have left the NHS in the past 10 years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no specific plans at present to commission further research on reasons why National Health Service registered nurses leave their roles. We have already commissioned research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to both evaluate the impact of the programme to have 50,000 more nurses in the NHS in England by 2024, and to understand factors influencing later career NHS nurse retention. Both will encompass elements of the drivers of retention of nurses in the NHS, with the former having already produced published research on push and pull factors in nursing careers, which is available at the following link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020748924002219?via%3Dihub
Summaries of the scope of the NIHR’s work are available at the following two links:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR203842
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR205962
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of homeless people discharged from hospital to the street and (b) average readmission rates of people discharged from hospital to the street in the last (i) three months, (ii) six months and (iii) 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 29 October 2024 to Question 10122.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of its guidance on Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness published with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 26 January 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 October 2024 to Question 10124.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 help ensure that homeless people are discharged safely from hospital.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have published guidance and supporting materials for health and care staff on discharging people at risk of, or experiencing homelessness. This ensures that every health and care interaction with a homeless person acts as an opportunity to provide support and signposting, with the aim of ending rough sleeping. The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on the development of the Government’s plans for social and affordable housing. Further information on the published guidance and supporting materials for health and care staff on discharging people at risk of, or experiencing homelessness, is available at the following link:
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve palliative and end of life care in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, which covers the Runcorn and Helsby constituency, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
I recently met NHS England to discuss how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care. Additionally, we have committed to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, and as part of this we will carefully be considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our stakeholders, as we develop the plan. More information about how they can input into the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 reduce waiting times for children's mental health services in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is unacceptable that too many children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are far too long, including in areas such as the Runcorn and Helsby constituency. That is why we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across both adult, and children and young people’s mental health services.
The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. Alongside this we are working towards rolling out Young Futures hubs in every community, offering open access mental health services for young people.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of unpaid carers in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2021 Census found that there are approximately 4.7 million people of all ages in England who said they provided unpaid care. In the Runcorn and Helsby constituency, the Census showed that there were approximately 10,000 people of all ages who said they provided unpaid care.
Following the budget announcement on 31 October 2024, the Government announced that from April 2025 it will increase the Carer's Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, which is the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage. This means carers can earn up to £10,000 a year whilst still retaining Carer's Allowance; this is approximately an additional £2,000 a year and represents the largest increase in the earnings limit since Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.
This will reduce work disincentives for those who are able to combine their family caring responsibilities with some paid work.