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 recent estimate he has made of the annual number of bowel cancer patients diagnosed under the age of 50.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest available data, from 2022, showed that there were 2,648 diagnoses of bowel cancer in people under the age of 50 years old. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including bowel cancer at all ages, as early as possible.
Beginning this year, the NHS expanded its bowel cancer screening program by lowering the eligibility age to 50 years old to ensure earlier diagnosis for those at risk. NHS England also runs the Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptom and to address barriers to acting on them, encouraging people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The bowel cancer campaign urged people to take up the offer of bowel screening when invited.
Furthermore, an NHS testing programme is helping to diagnose thousands of people with a genetic condition, Lynch Syndrome, that increases the chance of developing certain cancers, including bowel cancer. The national programme ensures that all people diagnosed with bowel cancer are offered genomic testing, along with their relatives, to help detect any cancers early and start timely treatment as needed.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on what will be done to improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, including for bowel cancer patients.
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 plans he has to improve early diagnosis of bowel cancer in patients under 50.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest available data, from 2022, showed that there were 2,648 diagnoses of bowel cancer in people under the age of 50 years old. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including bowel cancer at all ages, as early as possible.
Beginning this year, the NHS expanded its bowel cancer screening program by lowering the eligibility age to 50 years old to ensure earlier diagnosis for those at risk. NHS England also runs the Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptom and to address barriers to acting on them, encouraging people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The bowel cancer campaign urged people to take up the offer of bowel screening when invited.
Furthermore, an NHS testing programme is helping to diagnose thousands of people with a genetic condition, Lynch Syndrome, that increases the chance of developing certain cancers, including bowel cancer. The national programme ensures that all people diagnosed with bowel cancer are offered genomic testing, along with their relatives, to help detect any cancers early and start timely treatment as needed.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on what will be done to improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, including for bowel cancer patients.
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 mid-year efficiency requirements as set out by NHS partners on the sustainability of hospice services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. While no specific assessment has been made at the national level, ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations, which includes consideration of the potential impact of any efficiency requirements on the provision of services to patients.
To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
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 reduce regional disparities in the early diagnosis of liver (a) disease and (b) cancer; and if he will provide additional support to (a) the North West and (b) other high-incidence areas.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early detection of liver disease and cancer is vital to enable interventions and encourage behavioural change that can potentially lead to recovery. Except for liver transplant services, which are commissioned by NHS England, the commissioning of services for diagnosing, monitoring and treating liver disease is generally the responsibility of integrated care systems (ICS). ICSs are responsible for decisions on commissioning health services and reviewing those services to ensure they best meet the needs of their local population.
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside was one of the first integrated care boards in the country to mandate and support the formation of a Clinical Liver Network to improve liver health outcomes across the system. To improve the diagnosis of previously undiagnosed liver disease in non-traditional healthcare settings there is also a Community Liver Health Checks programme. This programme targets people from the most disadvantaged communities and since its inception in April 2023, this programme has delivered 8,564 scans across more than 50 individual sites across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Reducing inequalities is a priority for the forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which will look at the targeted improvements needed across different cancer types to reduce disparities in cancer survival and develop interventions to tackle these. The National Cancer Plan will include further details on improving outcomes for cancer patients, including those with liver cancer, and will highlight how the Department will support the National Health Service to improve diagnosis rates for people in all parts of England. This includes looking at inequalities related to geographic location.
For the first time ever, cancer survival rates in Cheshire and Merseyside have risen above the all-England average. This is largely due to a combination of targeted work, and a step-change in access to early diagnosis supported by a growing network of community diagnostic centres.
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, which hospitals will be investigated as part of the inquiry into maternity care in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The investigation will carry out rapid reviews of up to ten trusts with specific issues. The University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust will be one of those trusts, as outlined on 23 June. The other trusts will be identified in due course.
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, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who have been admitted to hospital after losing their PIP in each month in the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not collected centrally.
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 establish the National Care Service; and what his planned timeline is for (a) consultation with stakeholders and (b) implementation.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has taken a critical first step towards a National Care Service by launching an independent commission into adult social care.
The commission will build national consensus to create a National Care Service that is productive, preventative, and gives people who draw on care, and their families and carers, more power in the system.
It will be for the independent commission to determine their approach, but we expect it will include engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, including people with lived experience and unpaid carers, as well as building cross-party consensus. Further details will be set out by the commission in due course.
In the short-term, we are laying the foundations for a National Care Service by introducing legislation for the first ever Fair Pay Agreement for the care workforce, expanding the first-ever national career structure for the adult social care workforce, digitising care providers, and setting new standards for care technologies.
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 recent steps his Department has taken to improve access to NHS dentistry in Warrington South constituency; and what plans he has to increase the number of NHS dentists practising in Warrington.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Warrington South constituency, this is the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.
ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB is expected to deliver 46,617 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
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 is taking to improve (a) waiting times and (b) access to phlebotomy services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to putting patients first. This means making sure that patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.
We also recognise that care, including phlebotomy, should be more easily accessible, and located in the community where possible, which is more convenient for patients than going to hospital.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the 18-week constitutional standard by the end of this parliament. The plan commits to transform and expand diagnostic services and speed up waiting times for tests, a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the RTT 18-week standard.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are supporting one of the Government’s top priorities for health, to shift care from the hospital to the community. CDCs offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests, including phlebotomy, closer to home and greater choice on where and how they are undertaken whilst also reducing pressure on hospitals. Latest management information data shows that CDCs have delivered over 3.7 million phlebotomy tests since July 2021.
Healthcare services provided by general practice, including phlebotomy are commissioned locally by integrated care boards based on population need.
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 recent assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) value for money of modular hospital construction methods in delivering additional NHS capacity; and whether he has plans to increase the use of (i) modular and (ii) prefabricated buildings across the hospital estate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the benefits and opportunities of modern methods of construction (MMC), including modular construction, faster construction times, cost savings, minimised disruption, higher quality and safety standards, and the use of sustainable materials and methods.
A toolkit has been developed to support MMC opportunities in healthcare and is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-modern-methods-of-construction-assessment-tool-user-guide/
The NHS MMC assessment tool is recommended for use on all projects to inform the use of MMC of opportunities and is mandated for projects over £25 million to meet business case requirements of 70% new build and 50% refurbishment using MMC.
The New Hospital Programme is already transforming the way that hospital infrastructure is constructed by using a national standardised approach, called Hospital 2.0. Hospital 2.0 uses a standardised ‘kit of parts’ for hospital components, ranging from doors to full bathroom pods, that can be assembled into different size hospitals in an optimised, consistent, and repeatable way and with off-site manufacturing and assembly, reducing costs and accelerating construction. Taken together, MMC and Hospital 2.0 will accelerate the building process, improving productivity and maximising value for money.