Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
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 reduce the number of missing cancer patients.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have committed to returning the number of people waiting over 62 days to start treatment to pre-pandemic levels and increase referrals by encouraging patients to come forward. The ‘Help us help you’ campaign is raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encourages those with symptoms to use the National Health Service.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has in place to help ensure that dental practices accept NHS-funded patients.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service contracts with dentists to provide an agreed level of dental activity each year, measured in units of dental activity. Where a dentist holds a contract with the NHS, they must deliver the agreed activity or if performance is below 96%, the NHS can recover the unused funds. Dentists therefore have a strong financial incentive to deliver the contracted service and not prioritise private patients in cases where they have undelivered NHS activity.
Throughout the pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement have set contractual arrangements which support safe increases in access, whilst maintaining compliance with infection prevention and control measures. The Department is working with the NHS to increase delivery of dental care. NHS dental practices have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and care for vulnerable groups, including children followed by overdue appointments.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department requires dental practices to allocate a specific number or proportion of appointments to NHS-funded patients.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service contracts with dentists to provide an agreed level of dental activity each year, measured in units of dental activity. Where a dentist holds a contract with the NHS, they must deliver the agreed activity or if performance is below 96%, the NHS can recover the unused funds. Dentists therefore have a strong financial incentive to deliver the contracted service and not prioritise private patients in cases where they have undelivered NHS activity.
Throughout the pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement have set contractual arrangements which support safe increases in access, whilst maintaining compliance with infection prevention and control measures. The Department is working with the NHS to increase delivery of dental care. NHS dental practices have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and care for vulnerable groups, including children followed by overdue appointments.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has guidelines are in place to ensure dental services do not prioritise private patients over NHS-funded patients.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service contracts with dentists to provide an agreed level of dental activity each year, measured in units of dental activity. Where a dentist holds a contract with the NHS, they must deliver the agreed activity or if performance is below 96%, the NHS can recover the unused funds. Dentists therefore have a strong financial incentive to deliver the contracted service and not prioritise private patients in cases where they have undelivered NHS activity.
Throughout the pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement have set contractual arrangements which support safe increases in access, whilst maintaining compliance with infection prevention and control measures. The Department is working with the NHS to increase delivery of dental care. NHS dental practices have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and care for vulnerable groups, including children followed by overdue appointments.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
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 (a) reduce new hepatitis C virus infections and (b) support local authorities' efforts to tackle that transmission of that virus, such as needle and syringe programmes.
Answered by Maggie Throup
NHS England and NHS Improvement delivers the Hepatitis C Elimination Programme in England, working towards elimination by 2025.
Since 2015/16, the National Health Service has treated 65,000 people with hepatitis C. In addition, a cross-Government Prevention and Harm Reduction Working Group has been established to develop a national process to identify and reduce reinfection amongst those already treated. NHS England and NHS Improvement provide local authorities with guidance on the provision of syringes, harm reduction messaging and encourages testing and treatment. NHS England and NHS Improvement also commissions community pharmacies to contact and conduct screening for injectors identified via their needle exchange programme.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the UK Health Security Agency plans to release data on the prevalence of the hepatitis C virus in (a) London and (b) England.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The latest data on hepatitis C prevalence in London is published in ‘Hepatitis C in London: annual reports’ which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hepatitis-c-in-london-annual-review#history
The latest data on hepatitis C prevalence in England is published in ‘Hepatitis C in England and the UK’ which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hepatitis-c-in-the-uk
The UK Health Security Agency plans to publish the next national prevalence estimates in 2022.