Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS 10-year health plan for England will include dentistry services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts the National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. All three shifts are relevant to improving dental health in all parts of the country, and we expect dentistry services to benefit from the plan
Delivering better joint working between services, and more preventative action like supervised toothbrushing programmes will all help people improve their dental health and access the dental services they need closer to home.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 improve services for women with eating disorders.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many women with eating disorders are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be confident in accessing high quality support when they need it.
The Department continues to work closely with NHS England to ensure that people with an eating disorder get the care and treatment they need.
NHS England is continuing to expand community-based eating disorder service capacity, including crisis care and intensive home treatment, to improve outcomes and recovery, reduce rates of relapse, prevent eating disorders continuing into adulthood, and reduce lengths of stay in urgent and emergency care.
Funding for eating-disorder services has increased each year, from £46.7 million in 2017/18 to a planned spend of £101 million in 2024/25.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 adults with eating disorders that are waiting for treatment from community mental health services; and what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England recently published data on adult community mental health waiting times, which includes adult community eating disorder services. Services are working throughout 2024/25 to improve the data quality for these metrics, to be more accurate from 2025/26.
At the end of January 2025, 206,603 referrals to community mental health services for adults and older adults with serious mental illness were waiting for a second contact. The median waiting time was 93 days, and the 90th percentile was 263 days.
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services.
We are working with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment alongside the refresh of the Long Term Workforce Plan. This will focus on the three shifts to deliver our 10 Year Plan: moving care from hospitals to care in communities; making better use of technology in health and care; and focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 merits of improving (a) the funding of and (b) support for NHS dentistry services in rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service in England invests £3 billion in dentistry every year. NHS planning guidance is now published for 2025/26 and confirms that dental budgets are ringfenced. Planning guidance also confirms that improving access to urgent dental appointments is a key national priority.
We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist, particularly in rural areas. The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the ICBs across England. For the Camborne and Redruth constituency, this is the NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly ICB.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 Car-Hill formula for funding to GPs in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been no assessment made of the adequacy of the Carr-Hill formula for funding to general practices (GPs) in Camborne, Redruth, and Hayle.
Plans to review this funding formula may be revisited in future. However, any changes would need careful planning to ensure they do not threaten stability or cause financial uncertainty for practices.
We are committed to ensuring that primary medical services receive appropriate support and resources. We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 potential merits of approving Givinostat for use to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in (a) Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust and (b) other NHS trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS independently based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. NICE is currently evaluating givinostat for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and its Appraisal Committee will meet to consider its recommendations in May 2025.
Ahead of NICE’s evaluation, ITF Pharma UK, the United Kingdom’s marketing authorisation holder for givinostat, is providing access to givinostat through a type of compassionate use scheme called an Early Access Programme (EAP). Under the EAP, givinostat is free to both patients taking part in it and to the NHS, but the trusts must still cover the cost of administering it to patients. Only Duchenne muscular dystrophy clinicians can make requests for givinostat for their patients. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis for individual named patients aligned to eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 access to NHS mental health services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Around one million people are waiting to access mental health services, and vacancy rates for mental health trusts are around 10% - the highest of any NHS sector.
This government will fix our broken NHS so people can be confident of accessing high quality mental health support when needed.
This includes recruiting 8,500 more mental health workers, introducing specialist mental health professionals in every school, rolling out Young Futures hubs in every community and modernising the Mental Health Act.