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, whether his Department has taken recent steps to commission research into postural tachycardia syndrome; and whether he plans to take steps to commission further research into postural tachycardia syndrome.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Since 2018, the NIHR has not funded specific research into postural tachycardia syndrome. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. It is not usual practice for the NIHR to ring-fence a proportion of its budget for research into particular conditions and there are no current plans to commission specific research for postural tachycardia syndrome.
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, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Social Care of 27 Oct 2022, Official Report, col. 494, what his Department's expected timetable is for the conclusion of work commissioned on the potential merits of guaranteeing the right to maintain contact in care settings; and whether he plans to publish the outcomes of that work.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government’s guidance states that every resident should be able to have at least one visitor in all circumstances. We are currently engaging with stakeholders and reviewing a range of options to avoid instances where residents are unable to receive visitors.
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, whether his Department is taking steps to procure 70,000 additional monkeypox vaccines.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We have procured over 150,000 vaccine doses to date. The UK Health Security Agency’s expert advice, endorsed by Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, is to offer two vaccine doses to a defined high-risk cohort of 111,000 individuals in the United Kingdom. Since August 2022, the safe and clinically effective use of fractional dosing allows one vial of the vaccine to provide three doses. This ensures that we have sufficient doses to deliver the current vaccination strategy in full.
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 the diagnostic rates of ADHD in adult women.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Local commissioners are responsible for ensuring appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of the local population. Integrated care boards and National Health Service trusts should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline ‘Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management’.
This guideline aims to improve the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), recognising that ADHD may be under-diagnosed in women and girls and to improve the quality of care and support that people of all ages receive. Diagnosis of ADHD may be undertaken in a variety of care settings and therefore there is currently no single established dataset to monitor the number of ADHD diagnoses nationally. NHS Digital is working to improve the quality of relevant datasets, such as the Mental Health Services Dataset and the Community Services dataset.
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 she has made of the potential merits of allowing people diagnosed with Crohn's and Colitis to access a medical exemption card.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
There are no current plans to review or extend the prescription charge medical exemptions list to include long term conditions such Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Approximately 89% of prescription items are currently dispensed free of charge and there are wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place for which those with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis may meet the eligibility criteria and be in receipt of free prescriptions.
To support those who do not qualify for an exemption from prescription charges, the cost of prescriptions can be capped by purchasing a prescription pre-payment certificate, which can be paid for in instalments. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just over £2 per week. Additionally, people on a low income who do not qualify for an exemption from prescription charges can also seek help under the NHS Low Income Service, which provides help with health costs on an income-related basis.
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, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Wakefield.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the government plans to spend more than £8bn from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in GP surgeries, including in Wakefield. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workload such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and freeing up funding rules to widen the types of staff that work in general practice, including in Wakefield.
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 her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Wakefield.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
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 help improve access to NHS dentistry in Wakefield.
Answered by James Morris
From July 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked practices to deliver 100% of contracted units of dental activity and 100% of units of orthodontic activity to safely improve access for patients. An additional £50 million was provided for National Health Service dentistry for the final quarter of 2021/22 to support the provision of urgent care to patients. Of this funding, £8,633,000 was made available to the North East and Yorkshire region, including Wakefield.
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association, on improvements to the NHS dental system to increase access, including in Wakefield.
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, on what date his Department agreed to extend the service at King Street NHS walk-in centre beyond September 2022; and if he will provide details of the timescale and process for commissioning the procurement of that service.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The decision to extend the contract at King Street NHS walk-in centre for 12 months from the end of the existing contract in March 2022, was agreed on 11 November 2021. This extension allows a review of urgent services to be completed according to national guidance, including patient engagement. In summer 2022, the proposed model will be taken through initial governance routes with engagement or consultation in autumn 2022. This is dependent on the scale of the change proposed and will be agreed through local Overview and Scrutiny arrangements and with the relevant guidance from NHS England and NHS Improvement. From January to February 2023, any revisions to the proposals will be made, following the consideration of the responses and the governance arrangements will be approved. In March 2023, the public will be informed of the integrated urgent care service offer.