Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS workforce strategy will include provisions for NHS Trusts in England to hire the additional cancer workforce needed to meet the ambition for 75 per cent of cancer patients to be diagnosed at stage I or II by 2028 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to publishing the Long Term Workforce Plan shortly. This will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. The plan will cover the whole of the NHS workforce.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the article in the Health Service Journal entitled Deficit trusts face ‘intimidating conversations’ and orders to hold down staffing, published 25 April 2023, what recent discussions his Department has had with NHS England on reports that some NHS Trusts have been told they are not permitted to increase their total number of staff in 2023-24.
Answered by Will Quince
We are backing the National Health Service with record funding including up to £14.1 billion for health and social care over the next two years. We are also growing the workforce and there are record numbers of staff working in the NHS with over 48,700 more staff compared to a year ago including over 5,100 more doctors and over 11,800 more nurses.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the national NHS Adult Social Care surveys, how many responses to that survey have been received in each year for the past three years; and what the overall response rate to that survey was in those years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For the Personal Social Services Adult Social Care Survey published by NHS Digital in 2021/22, 59,770 responses were received from a sample of 220,360 service users, a response rate of 27%. The 2020/21 survey was made voluntary for local authorities to undertake due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighteen local authorities took part in the survey and 6,695 responses were received from a sample of 24,700 service users, a response rate of 27%. In 2019/20, there were 62,520 responses from a sample of 213,225 service users, a response rate of 29%.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department will take to consult those affected by bowel cancer on its Major Conditions Strategy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Major Conditions Strategy will draw on previous work on cancer, including over 5,000 submissions provided to the Department as part of our Call for Evidence last year. Many of those submissions will have included feedback on bowel cancer. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions for the Strategy that will have the most impact.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 extend healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The ambition to improve healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035 and reduce the gap by 2030 remains Government policy. A significant proportion of ill-health is preventable. We are focusing on the major conditions which contribute to early mortality and reduce years of good health and factors such as smoking, poor diet and alcohol which disproportionately impact some communities.
The measures include the ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030 and addressing obesity through working with the food industry to ensure it is easier to make healthier choices and to increase progress on the reformulation of foods. We will set out more information on plans to address health disparities in due course.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains the Government's policy to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy between areas where it is highest and lowest by 2030.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The ambition to improve healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035 and reduce the gap by 2030 remains Government policy. A significant proportion of ill-health is preventable. We are focusing on the major conditions which contribute to early mortality and reduce years of good health and factors such as smoking, poor diet and alcohol which disproportionately impact some communities.
The measures include the ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030 and addressing obesity through working with the food industry to ensure it is easier to make healthier choices and to increase progress on the reformulation of foods. We will set out more information on plans to address health disparities in due course.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 impact of poor housing on health; and what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on this matter.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In 2017, Public Health England published ‘Spatial planning for health: evidence review’, which concluded that poor housing conditions are a significant contributing factor to poor health outcomes. The Government is addressing poor housing through improving standards in private and socially rented accommodation and delivering the greatest improvements in the poorest performing areas through the Social Housing Bill and Decent Homes Standard.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he will provide GP Surgeries in addition to core contract funding to enable them to comply with increases in the Living Wage to £10.42 from 1 April 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, general practitioner (GP) practices are responsible for determining pay increase for employees within the agreed terms of the current GP contract.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he will provide GP Surgeries in addition to core contract funding to enable them to comply with directions from pay review bodies earlier this year to increase the salaries of GPs and NHS staff.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, general practitioner (GP) practices are responsible for determining pay increase for employees within the agreed terms of the current GP contract.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the rising cost of energy on GP surgeries; and if he will take steps to provide support to GP Surgeries to meet the cost of rising energy bills in addition to their core contract funding.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme caps the unit price of energy for public sector businesses, such as general practitioner surgeries, until the end of the current financial year. This will be automatically applied to all eligible bills.