Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 increase capacity in (a) dental and (b) orthodontic healthcare provision.
Answered by James Morris
We allocated an additional £50 million for National Health Service dentistry was provided for the final quarter of 2021/22 to provide urgent care to patients. 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.
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association, on improvements to the NHS dental system. Negotiations are currently underway on initial measures, which aim to improve access to NHS dentistry.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 increase the number of community diagnostic hubs; and ensure that those hubs are adequately staffed.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have committed £2.3 billion to launch up to 160 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) by March 2025, with more than 90 CDCs currently in operation in England. National Health Service regions are working with ICSs, diagnostic networks and primary care services to determine the location and configuration of services, based on the needs of the local population.
NHS England and Health Education England (HEE) are ensuring that there is sufficient workforce capacity for CDCs in the appropriate roles and locations. NHS England and HEE are increasing capacity through sharing good practice across the professions, ensuring CDCs are staffed with the appropriate skills and promoting the retention of staff and health and wellbeing.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 help expand the capacity of air ambulance services.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In 2019, the Department launched a three-year capital grant programme which allocated £10 million to nine air ambulance charities across England. A further £6 million of COVID-19 emergency funding was provided to Air Ambulances UK in 2020 to distribute to the 21 air ambulance charities in the United Kingdom.
The Government continues to support a charitable model for the funding of air ambulance services as this allows charities the independence to deliver specialised services tailored to the needs of patients in each locality.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 minimise the number of stillbirths in (a) the West Midlands and (b) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In the West Midlands, there has been progress towards full implementation of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle version 2 (SBLCBv2) to reduce perinatal mortality. This aims to support the national ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and intrapartum brain injuries by 2025. This ambition was extended to include reducing the rate of preterm births from 8% to 6% by 2025. Integrated care boards in the Midlands are being supported by the Midlands Perinatal Team to achieve full implementation by March 2023. In addition, a Midlands preterm birth strategy is in development with collaboration from clinical leads to reduce preterm births across the region.
In England, the Government's ambition is to halve the rate of stillbirths at 2010 levels by 2025, with a 20% reduction by 2020. The Office of National Statistics’ data published on 17 February 2022 shows that between 2010 and 2020, the stillbirth rate reduced from 5.1 per 1000 births to 3.8 per 1000 births, or a reduction of 25.2%. In the West Midlands Government Office Region, stillbirth rates reduced by 17.0%. We continue to work with all regions, including the West Midlands, to meet the national ambition.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 raise awareness of eating disorder services in the (a) West Midlands and (b) UK.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The four clinical commissioning groups in the West Midlands are promoting eating disorder services via campaigns and communication strategies tailored to the local populations.
The Department is also supporting Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Eating disorder services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are a devolved matter.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 help increase the number of new doctors who choose to specialise as community GPs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Health Education England’s (HEE) ‘Choose GP’ campaign promotes the benefits and opportunities of a career as a general practitioner (GP). It is aimed at foundation-year doctors considering specialty training options or a change in career path who wish to train as a GP. In addition, HEE continues to work with medical schools to enhance the profile of GPs. We have increased the number of GP training places with 4,000 trainees accepting a place in 2021/2022, an increase from 2,671 trainees in 2014.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to support people and families affected by Alzheimer's disease.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Following diagnosis, those with dementia should receive information on local services and access to relevant advice and support. Carers should be made aware of and offered the opportunity for respite and supported with their caring responsibilities. The Department’s guidance ‘After diagnosis of dementia: what to expect from health and care services’ is available at the following link:
We are working with stakeholders and the health and care system to identify and implement actions to support people with dementia and their carers. We will be setting out our plans on dementia for England for future years in 2022. This new dementia strategy will include a focus on improving the experience of being diagnosed and living with dementia.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 primary care networks and deliver care closer to home.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As members of Primary Care Networks (PCNs), general practices work with community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital and voluntary services in their local area to deliver integrated services. Sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems are responsible for putting in place high quality support for PCN development.
We are introducing new service requirements and income-protecting the Investment and Impact Fund, an incentive scheme focused on supporting PCNs. Additional financial support has also been given to PCNs for COVID-19 vaccinations, with extra funding for Clinical Directors and management leadership of vaccination sites. PCNs are entitled to significant funding for additional staff, in order to support delivery of better services for patients closer to home.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 (a) promote awareness of different types of cancer and (b) encourage people to seek early help.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In October 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement and the former Public Health England launched the ‘Help us help you’ campaign to encourage people to come forward with symptoms that could be a sign of cancer and reassure them that the NHS is open.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are planning a new campaign in the first quarter of 2022 to address the barriers to people presenting with symptoms of cancer and are developing plans to raise awareness of key cancer symptoms in 2022/23.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available for (a) young carers and (b) people who have become carers during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Local authorities have a duty to assess the needs of young carers, under the Children and Families Act 2014, which has remained in place throughout the pandemic. Local authorities must ensure young carers are identified and referred to appropriate support if needed and that the young carer is not taking on excessive or inappropriate care and support responsibilities. Adult carers also have legal rights to an assessment of and support for their needs where eligible from their local authority under the Care Act 2014.
We have also provided funding to a number of charities to support carers, produced guidance for carers, provided access to personal protective equipment and priority access in phase one of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. In addition, we have invested nearly £5 billion towards education recovery, which includes £1 billion for schools to support young carer’s mental health and wellbeing alongside academic recovery. We will work with the sector, including unpaid carers, to develop our future plans to support carers and will publish further detail in a white paper for reform later this year.