Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 make the NHS more accessible for people with visual impairment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated.
Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including people with a hearing or visual impairment.
On 30 June 2025, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and is reviewing the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 adequacy of his Department's provision of care for dementia patients within the local community.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10-Health Year Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services.
We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
To reduce variation in diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has developed a tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has set ICBs targets to promote CPR training in schools.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal requirement for integrated care boards (ICBs) to promote or recommend cardiopulmonary resuscitation training or any associated targets has been set. The Department and NHS England welcome ICBs setting locally led targets as best practice for local services and commissioners to work to.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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) transparent and (b) clearly reported data on hospital admissions and presentations to minor injury clinics due to dog bites, by healthcare trust in Great Britain.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently publishes data on hospital admissions, including those due to dog bites. This data can be found at the following link:
In 2023/24, in England, there were 10,678 finished admission episodes with an external cause of being bitten or struck by a dog. This data is available nationally and not disaggregated by individual National Health Service trusts or minor injury unit. There are no current plans to change this approach.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve the quality of training on (a) Tourette’s syndrome and (b) other tic disorders for service providers nationally.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it. NHS England’s Neuroscience Transformation Programme is supporting integrated care boards to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients, including providing care closer to home.
NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and RightCare Toolkits aim to improve care for patients with neurological conditions by reducing variation.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of neurological conditions for use by healthcare professionals and commissioners. NICE guidance ensures that patients are cared for in a consistently evidence-based way.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase the number of specialist practitioners (a) researching and (b) treating Tourette’s Syndrome.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it. NHS England’s Neuroscience Transformation Programme is supporting integrated care boards to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients, including providing care closer to home.
NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and RightCare Toolkits aim to improve care for patients with neurological conditions by reducing variation.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of neurological conditions for use by healthcare professionals and commissioners. NICE guidance ensures that patients are cared for in a consistently evidence-based way.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will publish (a) transparent and (b) clear data on (i) hospital admissions and (ii) presentations to minor injury clinics due to dog bites in each healthcare trust in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England already published data on hospital admissions due to dog bites. This data can be found at the following link:
In 2023/24, in England, there were 10,678 finished admission episodes with an external cause of being bitten or struck by a dog. This data is available nationally and is not disaggregated by individual National Health Service trusts or minor injury unit. There are no current plans to change this approach.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 2 June from the hon. Member for Torbay.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have received the Hon. Member’s correspondence of 2 June and we will respond shortly.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of establishing a national glaucoma pathway, in the context of similar models in (a) Wales and (b) Scotland.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary and secondary eye cares services to meet identified local needs. This can include commissioning enhanced services in the community such as glaucoma referral refinement and glaucoma monitoring services.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether capital funding has been allocated to South Western Ambulance Service for the modernisation of their estate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local communities, including in the South West, as they are best placed to take those decisions. Integrated care systems in the South West have been provisionally allocated a combined total of £447.9 million in operational capital funding, including primary care business-as-usual capital, for 2025/26, to be prioritised according to local needs.
In addition to the system allocation, ICBs and providers in the South West region have been provisionally allocated £82.6 million from our £750 million Estates Safety Fund to deliver vital safety improvements, enhance patient and staff environments, and support National Health Service productivity in 2025/26. They have also been provisionally allocated £10 million from our Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund to support improvements in the primary care estate, boosting productivity and enabling practices to deliver more patient appointments.
The Dorset ICB and providers have been provisionally allocated £7.9 million from our Estates Safety Fund for 2025/26, of which the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust will receive £1.7 million. This will fund improvements at Taunton Ambulance Station, St James Ambulance Station, Derriford Ambulance Station, and the trust’s headquarters.