Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total number of dental undergraduate training places available to (a) UK and (b) international students was in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2023-24.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Students (OfS) publish annual data showing the number of entrants to dental degrees in England each year from 2012 to 2023, split by those paying home fees and those paying other fees, which can be used as a proxy for the numbers of domestic and international students respectively.
This data can be found at:
The Government controls the number of dental school places that it funds. The OfS sets a maximum number of funded places for dental degrees on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education. Each provider is allocated a number of these places, but may take slightly fewer or more people than their allocated number, for example if exam results are unexpectedly good. For this reason, the target for funded places does not necessarily match actual intakes, though the difference is often not large. Therefore, we have linked to entrant figures in response to this question.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published on 30 June 2023 sets out an ambition to expand dentistry training places by 40%, so that there are over 1,100 places by 2031/32.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of (a) Atorvastatin and (b) Omeprazole through the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of the supply issues affecting a supplier of atorvastatin tablets. We have worked with alternative suppliers to confirm that their supplies remain available, whilst we continue to work with the affected supplier to ensure that action is taken to resolve the issues they are having as quickly as possible. We are not aware of any supply issues with omeprazole.
We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine supply issues can be. While we cannot always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise. We work with the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the devolved administrations, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages, and ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when supply issues arise. If any patient is concerned about their treatment, they should discuss this with their clinician at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental undergraduate training places will be available to students in England in each academic year between 2024-25 and 2031-32.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published on 30 June 2023 sets out an ambition to expand dentistry training places by 40% so that there are over 1,100 places by 2031/32. Details of this can be found at the following link on page 130:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-long-term-workforce-plan-2/
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people (a) have undergone and (b) are eligible to receive an NHS Health Check in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of people eligible for NHS Health Checks and the number of checks delivered each year is published here:
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish the average time taken between a 999 call for help and first hospital treatment for patients suffering a severe heart attack in each financial year since 2010-11.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not collected centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
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 the adequacy of the accessibility of tier 3 weight management services for patients; and in which (a) Integrated Care Board areas and (b) NHS trusts those services are available.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning tier three specialist weight management services (SWMS). These services are generally aimed at those living with severe obesity and associated co-morbidities. They provide support through a tailored programme of care from multidisciplinary teams able to assess and work with patients to establish the most suitable care, considering psychological, behavioural, dietary drivers, as well as underlying disordered eating or compulsions. These tier three SWMS are primarily delivered in secondary care, with occasional specialist primary and community-based provision.
In 2021, during the pandemic, NHS England oversaw a SWMS mapping exercise, via voluntary ICB and trust submission, to inform the COVID-19 recovery plan. Overall findings at the time suggested 37 out of 42 ICBs were commissioning provision of tier three SWMS, with approximately 35,000 patients in England accessing services. However, capacity constraints indicated an estimated 12,000 patients waiting to access services, with an average waiting time of six months nationally. ICBs who participated in the voluntary mapping exercise did not consent to the publication of identifiable information. NHS England does not routinely capture specific data on waiting times to access tier three SWMS.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish a breakdown of the number of people on waiting lists for tier 3 weight management services by (a) Integrated Care Board area and (b) NHS trust.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning tier three specialist weight management services (SWMS). These services are generally aimed at those living with severe obesity and associated co-morbidities. They provide support through a tailored programme of care from multidisciplinary teams able to assess and work with patients to establish the most suitable care, considering psychological, behavioural, dietary drivers, as well as underlying disordered eating or compulsions. These tier three SWMS are primarily delivered in secondary care, with occasional specialist primary and community-based provision.
In 2021, during the pandemic, NHS England oversaw a SWMS mapping exercise, via voluntary ICB and trust submission, to inform the COVID-19 recovery plan. Overall findings at the time suggested 37 out of 42 ICBs were commissioning provision of tier three SWMS, with approximately 35,000 patients in England accessing services. However, capacity constraints indicated an estimated 12,000 patients waiting to access services, with an average waiting time of six months nationally. ICBs who participated in the voluntary mapping exercise did not consent to the publication of identifiable information. NHS England does not routinely capture specific data on waiting times to access tier three SWMS.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to return to 12 months average timescales for the licensing of generic and biosimilar medicines.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has taken urgent action to deliver improvements to decision timescales in established medicines. The timely processing of marketing authorisation applications to ensure continued access to medicines for the United Kingdom public is of the highest importance. The MHRA are taking significant steps to assess applications for medicines approvals within statutory timeframes.
As an effective regulator, the MHRA are committed to the highest of standards of performance and delivering the right outcomes for patients and public health. The MHRA will always prioritise applications according to public health need.
The MHRA are working to reduce timelines by bringing in additional resources and to develop processes that will result in significantly improved response times while protecting patient safety. The MHRA have published information on a new process that came into effect from 1 March that will help to ensure a smoother and more rapid approvals process for applicants.
The measures MHRA are taking to improve regulatory assessment times are beginning to take effect and we are confident they will result in significant reductions to average timescales. The MHRA are publishing monthly updates providing applicants with transparent information on expected timescales which can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish a strategy to (a) tackle critical medicines shortages and (b) help improve the resilience of the community pharmacy sector.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to publish a strategy. There are around 14,000 medicines licensed for supply in the United Kingdom, and most are in good supply. However, the medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global, which means that there can sometimes be supply issues which affect the UK, along with other countries around the world. Medicine supply problems may be caused by several factors, including manufacturing difficulties, regulatory non-compliance, demand surges, problems with the supply of raw materials, and issues related to distribution of the product. We work with industry, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the devolved administrations, and other stakeholders to address these issues and help ensure patients continue to have access to the treatments they need. Communications about supply issues requiring active management are issued to healthcare professionals, and guidance is provided to help them manage their patients, where necessary.
Access to community pharmacies in England is good, with 80% of the population living within 20 minutes walking distance from a pharmacy, and twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas. We are funding pharmacies with £2.6 billion per year, and have invested up to an additional £645 million in the sector across this and next year, for the recently launched Pharmacy First service and the expansion of the existing Blood Pressure Check Service and Pharmacy Contraception Service. The contractual arrangements and funding for 2024/25 are being currently consulted on with Community Pharmacy England.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had recent discussions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on its targets to reduce its licensing backlog of generic and biosimilar medicine applications.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers receive regular updates on the performance of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The agency is taking significant steps to assess licensing applications within the shortest time possible. It is working to reduce timelines by bringing in additional resources and developing processes that will result in significantly improved response times, while protecting patient safety. These changes are already resulting in improvements, and monthly performance figures are published online.