Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the net increase in junior doctors through recruitment to the NHS is in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) Workforce statistics and General Practice Workforce statistics publications for England. These show that as of December 2023, the latest data available, there are 80,123 full time equivalent junior doctors working across HCHS and general practice settings in England. This is 4,505, or 6.0%, more than in December 2022.
It is not possible to report how much of this net increase is new recruitment, as the figures will also include movements of staff coming in and out of active service for reasons such as career breaks or maternity leave, and the impact of movements in staff working part time.
Junior doctors have been defined as those working in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations, who are recorded in the grades Foundation Year One, Foundation Year Two, Core Training and Specialty Registrar, and also those working in training grades in general practice.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on patient safety of the regulation by the General Medical Council of (a) physician and (b) anaesthesia associates.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Regulation of Anaesthesia Associates (AAs) and Physician Associates (PAs) by the General Medical Council (GMC) will mean that individual AAs and PAs can be held to account if serious concerns are raised.
Regulation will provide set standards of practice, education, and training for AAs and PAs as well as requirements around continual professional development and conduct. The GMC set the standards required for entry to its register by approving the curricula and assessments for AA and PA courses. These standards will give assurance that AA and PA students have demonstrated the core knowledge, skills and professional and ethical behaviours necessary to work safely and competently in their areas of practice. Regulation will also help bring further clarity to patients and healthcare professionals on the nature of these roles and their remits.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of extra beds available at hospitals in winter 2023-24.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services set the ambition in to increase the core general and acute (G&A) bed base by 5,000 permanent beds above originally planned 2022/23 levels. The latest published core G&A beds figures show over 3,700 additional core beds are now in place. The peak of total G&A bed numbers, encompassing both core and escalation beds, will depend on demand pressures, including from respiratory illnesses such as flu.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an estimate of the proportion of low-income families that attend yearly dental check-ups in Birmingham.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on recall intervals indicates that a healthy adult with good oral health need only see a dentist once every two years, and a child once every year. Data is therefore collected accordingly.
Under our reforms of July 2022 practices have been reminded that urgent dental care should be provided as part of their core service offer to patients, and that adherence to risk based recall intervals and other NICE guidance is a contractual requirement.
NHS Dental Statistics for England, 2022-23 Annual Report, brings together information on National Health Service dental activity in England for the 12-month period to 31 March 2023 and information on the number of patients seen by an NHS dentist up to 30 June 2023. This is available at the following link:
The data shows that 58.5% of courses of treatments were delivered to patients exempt from paying patient charges in 2022/23 for Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the data analysis by Mencap on the number of people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people in mental health hospitals, published on 31 March 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
‘Assuring Transformation’ data is published monthly by NHS England to monitor the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals. It is regularly reviewed and discussed by the ministerially chaired Building the Right Support Delivery Board to inform actions to drive further progress in reducing the number of autistic people and people with a learning disability in mental health inpatient settings.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for an adult autism diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on the average waiting times between referral for an autism assessment and diagnosis is not held centrally. Some data is held on average length of time between referral and first care contact. NHS England analysis indicates that, as of June 2023, for people aged 18 years old and over, there were 3,730 referrals for suspected autism where the date of first care contact falls within the period April to June 2023, which is the latest quarter available. The median waiting time for these referrals was 225 days.
The autism assessment waiting times data published on 14 September 2023 showed that the number of patients aged 18 years old and over with an open referral for suspected autism was 59,099 in June 2023. The data also showed that, in June 2023, 2,906 patients, or 5.8%, aged 18 years old and over with an open suspected autism referral in the month, that has been open for at least 13 weeks, received a first appointment in 13 weeks or less. The subsequent waiting times publication is 14 December 2023.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
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 ensure that NHS cancer treatment services have adequate resources to meet increasing demand.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is taking steps to reduce cancer treatment waiting times across England, including the time between an urgent general practitioner referral and the commencement of treatment for cancer for patients. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
Levels of first treatments following an urgent cancer referral have been consistently above pre-pandemic levels, with activity in September 2023 standing at 108% of pre-pandemic levels on a per working day basis.
The Department is also increasing the size of the cancer workforce. As of July 2023, there are currently over 1,600 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the speciality of clinical oncology in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 110 or 7.4% more than last year, over 320 or 24.5% more than 2019, and over 640 or 64.9% more than in 2010. This includes over 870 FTE consultants, which represents 35 or 4.2% more than last year, over 120 or 16.6% more than in 2019, and over 390 or 82.1% more than in 2010.
The Major Conditions Strategy will also consider the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of conditions including cancer.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to launch a review of the NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment process for people with dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We currently have no plans to launch a review of the NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) assessment process. Eligibility for CHC is not determined by age, diagnosis or condition, or financial means; it is assessed on a case-by-case basis considering the totality of an individual’s needs. This ensures a person-centred approach to CHC, whereby the individual is placed at the centre of the assessment and care-planning process. We continue to work with our partners, including NHS England who are responsible for oversight of CHC delivery, external organisations and people with lived experience, to seek feedback on CHC policy and implementation.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is readily available to people who need it.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine shortages can be and we want to assure patients that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible and to ensure patients have continuous access to ADHD medicines in the United Kingdom, in the short and long term.
We have issued communications to the National Health Service to advise healthcare professionals on management of patients whilst there continue to be disruptions to supplies. Patients are advised to speak to their clinician regarding any concerns they have and to discuss the suitability of treatment with alternative medicines.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessments his Department has made of the implications for his policies of (a) supply shortages and (b) manufacturing problems of drugs used by the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Medicine supply problems can occur for several reasons. For example, they can be due to manufacturing difficulties, regulatory problems, problems with the supply of raw materials, sudden demand spikes or from issues which are related to the distribution of the product.
The production of medicines is complex and highly regulated, and materials and processes must meet rigorous safety and quality standards. Occasionally, the National Health Service experiences temporary shortages of specific medicines
We know how distressing the possibility of shortages can be, however the Department has well-established processes to prevent, manage and mitigate medicine shortages when they do occur. We work with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments and others operating in the supply chain to strengthen the resilience of supply chains and help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.