Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of numbers of Parkinson's specialist staff in (a) West Yorkshire integrated care board area and (b) England.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
As of June 2023, there were 5.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) Parkinson’s Consultants working in the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts. There were 10.49 FTE Parkinson’s Clinical Nurse Specialists. This only includes those working in acute hospital services.
While the Department does not hold data specifically on the number of Parkinson’s specialist staff in England, we do hold data on the numbers working in the wider speciality of neurology. As of January 2024, there are over 1,800 FTE doctors working in the specialty of neurology in National Health Service trusts and other organisations in England. This includes over 900 FTE consultant neurologists. In 2023, the fill rate for recruitment into the specialty of neurology in England was 94%.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase access to NHS-provided weight loss surgery in the Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning National Health Service specialist and bariatric weight management services. Rates of bariatric surgery fell across West Yorkshire during the pandemic as hospitals focused on surgeries that were more clinically urgent. More patients are, however, starting to receive treatment again. To speed up access to surgery, the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts, which includes the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, are working to ensure that people who have been waiting the longest times are offered the opportunity to have their surgery at an alternative hospital, if they wish.
Additionally, local areas and care providers in West Yorkshire are working together to review obesity and bariatric surgery commissioning policies and processes to ensure that they are providing care in the best and most efficient way possible, to make the most of resources and to offer treatment to more people who need it.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to improve the way referrals are made by schools to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, in the context of Coroner Abigail Combes' prevention of future deaths report in September 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department is committed to improving the way referrals are made by schools to child and adolescent mental health services, through the work of mental health support teams, enhancing join up between schools and mental health services. There are now almost 400 mental health support teams in place across England, covering over three million children or around 35% of pupils in schools and colleges. We are aiming to increase this coverage to 50% by April 2025.
We are progressing work with NHS England and stakeholders to increase access to children and young people’s mental health services as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan. The National Health Service is working towards implementing a new waiting time standard for children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services to start to receive care within four weeks from referral.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish a (a) response to the consultation on hub and spoke dispensing and (b) timetable for the implementation of secondary legislation.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We are finalising our response to the consultation and the timetable for bringing forward the implementing of the legislation and our aim is to publish this as soon as possible. The timetable for bringing forward the implementing legislation will be dependent on the availability of Parliamentary time across the four nations.
We are committed to pursuing legislative changes to level the playing field and enable all community pharmacies to make use of hub and spoke arrangements.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
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 pharmacies in Wakefield (a) constituency and (b) district.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The consolidated National Health Service pharmaceutical list is published once a quarter and can be accessed via the NHS Business Services Authority Open Data portal, which is available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/consolidated-pharmaceutical-list
This shows that as of March 2023 there were 22 pharmacies in Wakefield constituency and 74 in Wakefield district.
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion each year to the sector. In September 2022, we announced an additional one-off £100 million investment across this and last financial year. In May, as part of the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we announced a further investment of up to £645 million over two years to expand the services offered by community pharmacies.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
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 support community pharmacies in Wakefield.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The consolidated National Health Service pharmaceutical list is published once a quarter and can be accessed via the NHS Business Services Authority Open Data portal, which is available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/consolidated-pharmaceutical-list
This shows that as of March 2023 there were 22 pharmacies in Wakefield constituency and 74 in Wakefield district.
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion each year to the sector. In September 2022, we announced an additional one-off £100 million investment across this and last financial year. In May, as part of the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we announced a further investment of up to £645 million over two years to expand the services offered by community pharmacies.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department have made of the impact of the closure of the National Cancer Research Institute on cancer research.
Answered by Will Quince
National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) has done great work over 22 years bringing together the cancer research community and connecting researchers. The decision to close was made by the NCRI trustees and is not the result of Government funding or any other decisions.
As the landscape evolves, we will continue to work with the research community and funders across the ecosystem to deliver research that meets the needs of patients and the public. We recognise the considerable leadership that Cancer Research UK has in this area, and will work in partnership with them and the patient community to strive to improve care and outcomes for all.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
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 waiting times for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Information on waiting times is not collected as a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s mental health services in England has not yet been defined or set.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least an additional £2.3 billion a year by March 2024. This will allow 345,000 more children and young people, including children and young people in Wakefield, to access NHS funded mental health support and improve waiting times.
NHS England has also consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards as part of its clinically led review of NHS access standards. One of these is that children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. We are now working with NHS England on the next steps.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
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 referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Information on waiting times is not collected as a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s mental health services in England has not yet been defined or set.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least an additional £2.3 billion a year by March 2024. This will allow 345,000 more children and young people, including children and young people in Wakefield, to access NHS funded mental health support and improve waiting times.
NHS England has also consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards as part of its clinically led review of NHS access standards. One of these is that children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. We are now working with NHS England on the next steps.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what requirements there are for NHS Trusts to provide (a) medication instructions and (b) patient information booklets in multiple languages.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS trusts are expected to adhere to statutory requirements under the Equality Act 2010, and to their responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty. In 2018 NHS England published ‘Guidance for Commissioners: interpreting and translation services in primary care’, which outlines commissioners’ responsibilities for supporting primary care services to support patients who may need translation and interpretation support. This includes the requirement that health-related written documents in English (for example health information leaflets), which are usually made freely available to patients, should be translated where needed into other languages at no cost to the patient.