Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will publish regular data on patients treated in (a) corridors and (b) other inappropriate spaces.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the unacceptable practice of corridor care in our National Health Service. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June, set out the steps that we are taking, including the commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care.
NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to put in place new reporting arrangements related to the use of temporary escalation spaces, to drive improvement. This information will be published following a review of data quality, and we will consider how this data could be published on a regular basis.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
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 support trusts to reduce bed occupancy to below 80% ahead of winter 2025-26.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is already preparing for winter this year with the development and testing of winter plans. This includes the surge capacity and escalation plans in place across all NHS and urgent care services.
The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan 2025/26 focuses on improvements that will see the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care performance this winter, including working to reduce bed occupancy by avoiding unnecessary admissions and reducing delays to discharge.
To help avoid unnecessary admissions, the NHS is expanding Same Day Emergency Care, virtual wards, and urgent community response services so patients can receive timely care closer to home.
Where people are admitted to hospital, trusts are asked to reduce the average length of stay for patients requiring an overnight emergency admission by at least 0.4 days. This includes reducing discharge delays, working with local authorities and integrated care boards to progressively eliminate the longest and most unacceptable discharge delays, starting with the 0.7% of patients who wait more than 21 days beyond their discharge ready date, and eliminating any internal delays to discharge of more than 48 hours.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
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 waiting times for the Op Courage service.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England meets with the regional providers of Op COURAGE on a regular basis to review the individual services, to ensure that they are meeting the needs of veterans. They are undertaking a comprehensive review which includes the time that veterans wait for assessment and treatment. Any recommendations from the review will be implemented from April 2026.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
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 waiting times for neurology health services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, having delivered 5.2 million more appointments across elective care services. This marks a vital first step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029.
Between August 2024 and 2025, we reduced the number of incomplete neurology pathways by almost 10,000, or 4.3%, from 236,621 to 226,432, and reduced the average waiting time for neurology services from 16.7 to 15.4 weeks. 56.1% of patients referred were seen within 18 weeks, up from 53.1% at the same point last year. This is still lower than the national average and we are continuing efforts to improve this, recognising this is a challenged specialty.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, commits to reform outpatient services, including by supporting general practitioners and hospital doctors to work better together to ensure referrals are used when a patient really needs hospital care, through increased uptake of Advice and Guidance. There are a number of initiatives at the national level supporting service improvement and better care for patients with neurological conditions, including the UK-wide Neuro Forum, the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit and the Getting It Right First Time programme for neurology.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy that prioritisation for (a) medical evacuation and (b) treatment of children from Gaza is based solely on (i) clinical urgency and (ii) medical need.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working urgently to get some of the critically ill and injured children medically evacuated from Gaza.
I refer the hon. Member to Written Statement HCWS899 by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to expand the medical evacuation of Gazan children scheme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Statement HCWS899 made to the House on 1 September 2025 by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
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 the quality of information provided on (a) choice over pregnancy, (b) menopause care and (c) the availability of free contraceptive pills at pharmacies.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important that women are provided with accurate information that enables them to make informed choices about their care, including contraceptive choices and menopause.
Pharmacies are well placed to advise patients on the options available to them when accessing oral contraception on the National Health Service. Contraceptive pills are available from pharmacies on prescription or when issued as part of the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service. The service launched in April 2023 and enables pharmacists to initiate and continue ongoing supplies of contraception initiated in general practice surgeries and sexual health services. Later in 2025, the service will expand to include emergency hormonal contraception (EHC), which means women will have access to the ‘morning-after pill’ free of charge at pharmacies on the NHS, thereby ending the current situation where free EHC is only available in some areas. NHS England has launched an online tool to help educate individuals wishing to access the service and to signpost where they can find a participating pharmacy.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published their updated menopause guideline in November 2024 and recommended more treatment choices for menopause symptoms. The updated guideline aims to support healthcare professionals by providing them with the information they need to support evidence-based decisions about treatment choices, as well as information and support about menopause. There are also a range of resources and support that pharmacies can signpost patients to, for example the NHS website and the NHS menopause factsheet, which was created to help women understand and manage symptoms and know how to seek help.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many midwives were working in the NHS in England at the most-recent point for which figures are available; how many of those qualified (a) in the UK and (b) outside of the UK, by country; and what estimate he has made of the number that will be working in the NHS in future years from each of these categories.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. This covers staff working for hospital trusts and in integrated care in England. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, the human resources system for the National Health Service. This data shows that as of April 2025, there are 24,959 full time equivalent midwives working in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. Further information is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
The Department does not hold information on how many NHS midwifes qualified in the United Kingdom and outside of the UK, by country. However, NHS England publishes data on the nationality of its staff, which may be of interest as context. The latest information on the nationality of NHS staff by staff group is available at the following link, in tab 14 of the file named Preliminary – NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data tables, April 2025:
The Department has made no specific estimate of the number of UK and non-UK qualified midwives who will be working in the NHS in future years. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service. They will be more empowered, more flexible, and more fulfilled.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people diagnosed with hypertension through the NHS Health Check programme were subsequently tested for chronic kidney disease in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Blood pressure is one of seven risk factors for cardiovascular disease assessed in the NHS Health Check, and it is also a risk factor for chronic kidney disease. Individuals who have a high blood pressure reading during their NHS Health Check are referred to their general practice for further clinical investigation, and subsequent diagnosis of hypertension and management where appropriate.
Data is currently not collected on the number of individuals who, following their NHS Health Check, are diagnosed with hypertension and are subsequently tested for chronic kidney disease.
We are considering how to improve data collection and monitoring of the NHS Health Check following the National Audit Office report.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
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 increase (a) referral to and (b) uptake of testing for chronic kidney disease among people diagnosed with hypertension through the NHS Health Check programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individuals who have a high blood pressure reading during their NHS Health Check are referred to their general practice for further clinical investigation, and subsequent diagnosis of hypertension and management where appropriate.
In 2024, NHS England incorporated a new indicator into the CVDPREVENT audit to monitor the measurement of kidney function, a urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio test, in people with hypertension, as recommended in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.