Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
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 implications for his policies of the level of vacancies for consultant dermatologists in the South East; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of these vacancies on patient waiting times.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made.
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out that the National Health Service will expand workforce capacity by identifying and addressing vacancies in specific staff groups and sectors. We will also implement measures to retain NHS staff, including local support for mental and physical health and wellbeing. We have also created 15 additional postgraduate training posts in dermatology from August 2022.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for paediatrics appointments in Kent and Medway in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
In March 2022, the average waiting time for an outpatient appointment in the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group where the main specialty was paediatric-related was 274 days.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what contingencies are in place for people using sleep apnoea machines, in the event of energy blackouts in winter 2022-23.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Care providers and suppliers support those with long term conditions to safely use medical equipment at home and in cases where the equipment is disrupted. In a power outage scenario, the Priority Services Register is maintained by electricity network operators to target support to the most vulnerable customers.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the NHS Pension Scheme to help increase the recruitment and retention of clinical staff in Kent and Medway.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Pension Scheme provides generous retirement benefits for all NHS staff, including those in Kent and Medway. To retain senior clinicians affected by pension tax, we will resolve annual allowance tax charges and we expect employers to make contribution recycling available to affected staff. We will also remove barriers for staff retiring and returning to work and facilitate partial retirement.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of GP appointments in Canterbury constituency in the past 12 months and what the number was in 2013.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested, However, in the 12 months to August 2022, there were 10.2 million general practice appointments in the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason students studying for a Paramedic Science degree course as their second degree are not eligible for grants from the NHS Learning Support Fund.
Answered by Edward Argar
Second Degree Paramedicine students are not eligible for support from the Student Loans Company and therefore, are not eligible for the NHS Learning Support Fund.
The Department of Health and Social Care is in discussions with the Department for Education about providing an Equivalent or Lower Qualification exemption to the student finance rules for paramedicine. Subject to the outcome of these discussions and availability of the necessary funding, those studying paramedicine as a second degree could access tuition fee and maintenance loan support if eligible and if so, would have access to the NHS Learning Support Fund.
The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all pre-registration National Health Service health professionals’ education under review, to ensure that students are appropriately supported. In doing so, it must make use of finite financial resources to balance the level of support students receive with the need to make best use of public funds to deliver value for money.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a patient to be diagnosed with long covid within NHS Trusts in the South East.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Since November 2020, NHS England has invested £224 million for the treatment of people experiencing the long term effects of COVID-19. The South East has received approximately £25 million and 13 adult Post-COVID-19 clinics and two specialist paediatric hubs for children and young people have been established. NHS England’s South East regional team, also provides dedicated regional clinical leadership and resources to improve the quality and sustainability of these services.
Information on average waiting times is not held in the format requested. While information on activity and demographics of patients who have been referred to a post-COVID-19 assessment service in England has been collected since September 2021, the average waiting time for treatment following an initial specialist assessment is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional support and resources are being made available to NHS Trusts in the South East for patients diagnosed with long covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Since November 2020, NHS England has invested £224 million for the treatment of people experiencing the long term effects of COVID-19. The South East has received approximately £25 million and 13 adult Post-COVID-19 clinics and two specialist paediatric hubs for children and young people have been established. NHS England’s South East regional team, also provides dedicated regional clinical leadership and resources to improve the quality and sustainability of these services.
Information on average waiting times is not held in the format requested. While information on activity and demographics of patients who have been referred to a post-COVID-19 assessment service in England has been collected since September 2021, the average waiting time for treatment following an initial specialist assessment is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
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 impact of the outbreak of covid-19 on the demand for urgent NHS specialist eating disorder treatment in Kent and Medway.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We have made no specific assessment.
However, NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that Kent and Medway’s All Age Eating Disorder Service (AAEDS) introduced the role of a paediatric liaison nurse to aid collaborative working links between services and improve the patient journey. This role also allows for specific eating disorder training to be delivered to acute care colleagues. AAEDS has also introduced bi-weekly meetings between the service, acute medical wards and the provider collaborative to allow prompt, safe discharge from acute medical wards.
Since March 2020, an additional £1.7 million has been invested in the Kent and Medway AAEDS to address increased demand and complexity of cases. There are plans through adult community mental health transformation to further enhance the service with investment proposed during 2022/23.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage of ambulance responses by the South East Coast Ambulance Service to category 4 call-outs were within the target of 180 minutes; and what the average response time was in that service for category 4 call-outs in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Edward Argar
Data on the percentage of South East Coast Ambulance Service ambulance responses in each category is not held centrally. The following table shows the average response time for each category in each of the last 24 months.
Date | Category 1 Average response time in minutes | Category 2 Average response time in minutes | Category 3 Average response time in hours, minutes and seconds | Category 4 Average response time in hours, minutes and seconds |
February 2020 | 7:43 | 19:13 | 1:31:09 | 2:03:26 |
March 2020 | 7:52 | 21:25 | 1:44:50 | 2:11:09 |
April 2020 | 7:05 | 14:50 | 49:14 | 1:08:29 |
May 2020 | 7:00 | 14:28 | 44:56 | 59:14 |
June 2020 | 7:32 | 16:44 | 1:09:58 | 1:34:06 |
July 2020 | 7:58 | 18:41 | 1:26:13 | 1:46:31 |
August 2020 | 7:54 | 18:58 | 1:34:21 | 1:59:55 |
September 2020 | 7:45 | 18:57 | 1:28:53 | 2.05.26 |
October 2020 | 7:35 | 18:22 | 1:24:03 | 1:51:59 |
November 2020 | 7:35 | 17:34 | 1:14:25 | 1:42:20 |
December 2020 | 8:25 | 26:52 | 2:35:24 | 3:25:10 |
January 2021 | 8:30 | 25:54 | 2:26:53 | 2:31:16 |
February 2021 | 7:35 | 16:50 | 54:08 | 1:12:22 |
March 2021 | 7:37 | 18:37 | 1:14:27 | 1:29:08 |
April 2021 | 7:32 | 18:53 | 1:20:37 | 2:01:55 |
May 2021 | 7:57 | 21:28 | 1:44:13 | 2:28:51 |
June 2021 | 8:18 | 26:10 | 2:35:11 | 3:38:45 |
July 2021 | 8:49 | 30:37 | 3:13:50 | 2:48:25 |
August 2021 | 8:45 | 29:42 | 2:45:36 | 3:58:43 |
September 2021 | 9:00 | 30:58 | 3:07:16 | 4:07:53 |
October 2021 | 9:08 | 34:56 | 3:24:26 | 4:39:58 |
November 2021 | 9:11 | 33:33 | 2:42:44 | 4:16:33 |
December 2021 | 8:42 | 34:17 | 2:46:46 | 4:01:27 |
January 2022 | 8:44 | 28:21 | 2:01:32 | 2:46:29 |
February 2022 | 8:43 | 32:16 | 2:28:05 | 3:23:21 |