Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 ensure that hospices in (a) South Shropshire constituency and (b) the West Midlands receive (i) adequate and (ii) sustainable funding.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including those in Shropshire and the wider West Midlands, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people, and their loved ones, at the end of life.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding charitable hospices receive varies by ICB area, and will, in part, be dependent on the breadth and range of palliative and end of life care provision within their ICB footprint.
The Government is going to shift the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community, and we recognise that it is vital to include palliative and end of life care, including hospices, in this shift.
We will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide £312 million in funding for Shropshire's Hospital Transformation programme.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to delivering the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Transformation Programme as part of the wider National Health Service upgrades programme.
This is backed by £312 million of capital investment and will improve services and patient flow across Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 - South Shropshire)
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
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 - South Shropshire)
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
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 - South Shropshire)
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
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 - South Shropshire)
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
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.