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 hubs that provide open access mental health services for children and young people in every community will be delivered only through the Young Futures programme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving mental health support for children and young people, as demonstrated by our pledge to roll out a network of Young Futures Hubs in every community to provide open access mental health support. We are currently working across Government to deliver Young Futures Hubs, to bring together services, including mental health support, to improve how young people access opportunities and support at community level.
We will also improve mental health support for children and young people by providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school and recruiting 8,500 additional mental health workers to help cut waiting lists across the country.
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, with reference to page 12 of the document entitled Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025, what steps he plans to take to implement shared decision-making.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan, published on 6 January 2025, sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure that patients are seen on time and have the best possible experience during their care. Shared decision making is an important part of good patient experience, ensuring that patients have greater empowerment, autonomy, and control over their care. Shared decision making is not a new concept but is a key component of universal personalised care that we are committed to delivering and expanding.
Improving digital tools will be essential, and changes to the NHS App will help to improve communication and shared decision making between patients and clinicians. We have committed to ensuring that at least 85% of acute trusts will be able to provide information about their elective appointments to patients on the NHS App by the end of March 2025. We will also make more types of content about patients’ treatment available on the NHS App, such as discharge letters, by December 2025. We will also support all trusts to adopt digital patient engagement portals (PEPs) which enable patients and their healthcare team to send messages and share documents. We understand, though, that digital options do not work for everyone and we will continue to provide high quality, non-digital options for those who want and need them. Providing customer-care training to patient facing non-clinical staff will form another key part of supporting patients to make informed decisions about their care.
The plan outlines that we will be expanding opportunities for self-management and remote monitoring which will empower patients to manage long-term conditions in ways which are more convenient for their lives. The National Health Service will use digital questionnaires through PEPs and the NHS App to make remote monitoring a standard offer to patients with long-term conditions, following agreement with their healthcare team.
Shared decision making between patients and clinicians is a cornerstone of supporting more patient initiated follow-ups (PIFU), helping patients to be seen quickly when required, whilst avoiding the inconvenience of appointments they do not need. We have set out the aim of increasing PIFU uptake to at least 5% of all outpatient appointments by March 2029.
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, with reference to document entitled the Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025, what estimate he has made of the size of the workforce needed to implement the (a) perioperative care measures and (b) requirements for anaesthetists outlined in that plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure that patients are seen on time and have the best possible experience during their care. Improving perioperative care can increase productivity by reducing cancellations, reducing length of stay, and minimising postoperative complications.
The Government will work closely with NHS England to develop a new long-term workforce plan for the National Health Service.
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, when he plans to begin rolling out measures to deliver the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments this financial year; and how many such appointments he plans to deliver within the same period.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care. We are working to ensure that patients can start to access 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments as soon as possible, targeting areas that need them most. We will set out further information on this commitment, including how this will be measured, in due course.
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 plans to take to deliver 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments each year.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care. We are working to ensure that patients can start to access 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments as soon as possible, targeting areas that need them most. We will set out further information on this commitment, including how this will be measured, in due course.
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 commission further waves of the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England report.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises the importance of the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England Report. We will publish plans in due course.
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 his Department will (a) introduce emergency presentation as a proxy staging measure for non-stageable blood cancers and (b) apply a corresponding national target to (i) measure and (ii) support reduction of late diagnosis of blood cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
There are no current plans to introduce a specific proxy staging measure or a corresponding national target to support the earlier diagnosis of blood cancers. To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the National Health Service 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.
The National Disease Registration Service, through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have blood cancer, labelled as haematological neoplasms. The National Disease Registration Service’s website shows the number of people treated for different tumour types by treatment type, as well as survival rates, mortality rates, and data on urgent suspected cancer referrals. This data supports service provision and commissioning in the NHS, clinical audits, and public health and epidemiological research, all of which contributes to improved outcomes, including for blood cancer patients. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.cancerdata.nhs.uk/
As part of the Government’s five long-term missions, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS and make it fit for the future. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention, and will be co-designed with the public, staff, and patients. I would encourage you to engage via our online portal, which is available at the following link:
https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has been clear that there should be a National Cancer Plan. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be. We will provide updates on this in due course, including on how we plan to engage blood cancer partners.
I met with the Hon. Member for Poole and Blood Cancer UK, a member of the Blood Cancer Alliance, on 22 October 2024 to discuss the UK Blood Cancer Action Plan.
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 meet the Blood Cancer Alliance to discuss the need to include specific measures to improve blood cancer (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment and (c) care in the forthcoming cancer strategy.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
There are no current plans to introduce a specific proxy staging measure or a corresponding national target to support the earlier diagnosis of blood cancers. To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the National Health Service 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.
The National Disease Registration Service, through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have blood cancer, labelled as haematological neoplasms. The National Disease Registration Service’s website shows the number of people treated for different tumour types by treatment type, as well as survival rates, mortality rates, and data on urgent suspected cancer referrals. This data supports service provision and commissioning in the NHS, clinical audits, and public health and epidemiological research, all of which contributes to improved outcomes, including for blood cancer patients. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.cancerdata.nhs.uk/
As part of the Government’s five long-term missions, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS and make it fit for the future. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention, and will be co-designed with the public, staff, and patients. I would encourage you to engage via our online portal, which is available at the following link:
https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has been clear that there should be a National Cancer Plan. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be. We will provide updates on this in due course, including on how we plan to engage blood cancer partners.
I met with the Hon. Member for Poole and Blood Cancer UK, a member of the Blood Cancer Alliance, on 22 October 2024 to discuss the UK Blood Cancer Action Plan.
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 publish (a) the number of blood cancer patients diagnosed via Non-Specific Symptom pathways and (b) other data on the performance of such pathways.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The capturing of non-specific symptom pathway outcomes was introduced in July 2023. From July 2023 to October 2024, 263 patients have been diagnosed via non-specific symptom pathways. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/supplementary-information/
The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have cancer.
Blood cancer is included as a distinct category in the NDRS, labelled haematological neoplasms. The NDRS’ website also shows the number of people treated for different tumour types by treatment type, as well as survival rates, mortality rates, and data on urgent suspected cancer referrals. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.cancerdata.nhs.uk/
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 blood cancer patients have been diagnosed via Non-Specific Symptom pathways in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The capturing of non-specific symptom pathway outcomes was introduced in July 2023. From July 2023 to October 2024, 263 patients have been diagnosed via non-specific symptom pathways. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/supplementary-information/
The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have cancer.
Blood cancer is included as a distinct category in the NDRS, labelled haematological neoplasms. The NDRS’ website also shows the number of people treated for different tumour types by treatment type, as well as survival rates, mortality rates, and data on urgent suspected cancer referrals. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.cancerdata.nhs.uk/