Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 potential impact of waiting times for gynaecology treatment on women’s health outcomes; and what steps he is taking to improve access to timely care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we build a National Health Service fit for the future. Our focus is on turning the commitments in the Women's Health Strategy into tangible action, such as providing emergency hormonal contraception free of charge at pharmacies on the NHS from October 2025; setting out how we will eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 through the new cervical cancer plan; and taking urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan.
As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients, including women waiting for gynaecological care, wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029. We provided additional investment in the Autumn Budget that has enabled us to fulfil our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments early. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January, sets out the reform we will undertake to return to the 18-week standard, and to ensure patients have the best possible experience while they wait. This includes commitments to offer patients care closer to home, in the community, including piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for patients with unscheduled bleeding on hormone replacement therapy. We have also committed to increasing the relative funding available to support gynaecology procedures with the largest waiting lists.
We know the vital role general practitioners (GPs) have to play in the Government’s mission to tackle NHS waiting lists. This is why we have expanded the Advice and Guidance scheme, investing £80 million to keep patients off the waiting list, with GPs working more closely with hospital specialists to access expert advice to make sure patients can access timely, high quality care.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 impact of reintroducing private finance through public private partnerships for neighbourhood health centres on the NHS; and how those proposals differ from previous private finance initiative models.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10 Year Health Plan, the Department, alongside the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, is working on a business case to look at the feasibility of using a public private partnership (PPP) model for Neighbourhood Health Centres, with a decision expected in the Autumn Budget.
Any new PPP models will be subject to market testing and will build on lessons learned from past government experience, models currently in use, and the March 2025 National Audit Office report, ‘Lessons Learned: private finance for infrastructure’.
The Department conducted a successful preliminary market engagement exercise over summer 2025, and this is feeding into the business case.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 impact of the quality of (a) infrastructure and (b) property in NHS facilities on (i) patient safety and (ii) service delivery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The safety of NHS staff and patients is a top priority for the Government, and we recognise that delivering high quality NHS healthcare services requires safe, sustainable, and effective infrastructure and facilities. Lord Darzi’s investigation considered the impact of NHS infrastructure, estates and capital funding on the NHS, and found that capital investment has been neglected, with the hospital estate left to crumble.
Repairing and rebuilding our healthcare estate is a vital part of our ambition to create an NHS that is fit for the future through our 10-Year Health Plan. The Government’s recently published 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy set out 10-year maintenance budgets for the public estate, confirming £6 billion per year for maintenance and repair of the NHS estate up to 2034/35. Within this, the 2025 Spending Review settlement announced a total capital investment of £30 billion over five years in day-to-day maintenance and repair of the NHS estate, with over £5 billion specifically allocated to address the most critical building repairs.
In 2025/26, this includes a £750 million Estates Safety Fund which will deliver vital safety improvements, enhance patient and staff environments, and reduce disruptions to NHS clinical services.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to introduce mandatory suicide prevention training for all frontline NHS staff.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to introduce mandatory training for NHS frontline staff on suicide prevention.
On 4 April 2025, NHS England published Staying Safe from Suicide: Best Practice Guidance for Safety Assessment, Formulation and Management. This requires all mental health practitioners to align their practice to latest evidence in suicide prevention. The guidance is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/staying-safe-from-suicide/.
Pre-registration (qualifying) training for registered mental health staff is expected to contain appropriate suicide prevention training.
Training for NHS staff is being developed based on the Staying Safe from Suicide Guidance in the form of an eLearning session. This will commence in September 2025 and will be available to all mental health practitioners across all sectors including the NHS, voluntary, community, social enterprises and the independent sector.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 average ambulance response times for Category (a) 1 and (b) 2 incidents.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Delivery Plan for 2025/26 commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. We are also tackling unacceptable ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, ensuring ambulances are released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients.
Backed by almost £450 million, the UEC Delivery Plan will deliver around 40 new Same Day Emergency Care and Urgent Treatment Centres – which treat and discharge patients in the same day, avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital and in turn reducing handover delays. This is alongside upgrading hundreds of ambulances as part of the investment to improve the speed and quality of care for those most in need.
We have already seen improvements in response times across the country. The latest national figures show that Category 1 incidents were responded to in an average of 7 minutes 56 seconds, and Category 2 incidents in 28 minutes 40 seconds. This is faster than 8 minutes 15 seconds and 33 minutes 24 seconds respectively in July 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England will include targets to improve the timeliness of diagnosis of blood cancers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes.
To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancer earlier and treating it faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 improve (a) awareness and (b) recognition of postural tachycardia syndrome among NHS clinicians.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve awareness of postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) among healthcare professionals, and specifically general practitioners, the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500
It is the responsibility of local integrated care boards to work with clinicians, service users and patient groups to develop services and care pathways that are convenient and meet the needs of patients with PoTS.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published a clinical knowledge summary on the clinical management of blackouts and syncope, providing advice for clinicians in the United Kingdom on best practice in the assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. This was last updated in November 2023 and is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of advertising standards for fertility clinics recruiting egg donors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the United Kingdom’s fertility sector regulator, sets out strict requirements in its Licence Conditions and Code of Practice in relation to the recruitment of donors and the information that must be given to egg donors in advance of donating at United Kingdom licensed fertility clinics. This includes information about the potential immediate or longer-term health risks and the psychological consequences of being a donor, as well as offering counselling to everyone involved.
The HFEA’s Code of Practice states that advertising should be designed with regard to the sensitive issues involved in recruiting donors and should follow the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes. This includes that advertising or publicity aimed at recruiting gamete or embryo donors, or encouraging donation, should not refer to the possibility of financial gain or similar advantage, although it may refer to compensation permitted under relevant HFEA Directions.
The ASA and HFEA issued a joint enforcement notice in 2021 to ensure fertility clinics and others are aware of the advertising rules, which remains in place.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 improve access to NHS dental care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of local populations has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For Warrington South constituency, this is NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.
We will deliver 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year, and ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB is expected to deliver 46,617 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve early diagnosis of bowel cancer through the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early diagnosis of cancers, including bowel cancer, is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan, due to be published later this year, will build on the shifts in care set out in the 10-Year Health Plan to diagnose cancers earlier. Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we will make it easier for people to access cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment in patients’ local areas, backed by the latest technology.
The UK Bowel Cancer Screening Programme is undergoing several updates to its standards aimed at improving coverage, accessibility, and early detection. This includes updated performance thresholds, and improved accessibility of bowel cancer screening faecal immunochemical test kits for people who are blind or partially sighted.