Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the additional NHS capital investment announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 will be allocated to establishing (a) mobile diagnostic hubs and (b) new health centres.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
£1.65 billion of additional capital funding has been allocated in the budget for 2025/26 to support National Health Service performance across secondary and emergency care. This investment includes funding for new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners to build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures and over 1.25 million diagnostic tests as they come online; new beds across the estate to create more treatment space in emergency departments, reduce waiting times, and help shift more care into the community; and £70 million to invest in new radiotherapy machines to improve cancer treatment.
As detailed in the 2025/26 capital guidance, published on 30 January 2025, NHS England has also provided systems with their operational capital envelopes. These allocations are managed locally, with systems prioritising investments in line with their clinical and operational needs. As part of the £1.65 billion of funding, some targeted national programme funding is also available for strategic priorities such as the expansion of community diagnostic centres and the improvement of cancer treatment capacity.
The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the composition of investment across individual schemes that will best support NHS performance, including the completion of business cases. To support this, NHS England is working with local NHS systems to identify the most appropriate locations for investment. Further information will be shared shortly.
Future capital investment beyond 2025/26 will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
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 tackle the challenges that rural communities face in accessing NHS services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the particular challenges that communities in rural areas can face in accessing healthcare services. We are committed to returning National Health Service performance to the access standards as set out in the NHS Constitution.
The forthcoming 10 Year Plan will set out the reforms needed to ensure the NHS is put on a sustainable footing so it can tackle the problems of today and the future. The plan will focus on ensuring three big reform shifts in the way our health services deliver care: moving from hospitals to communities; making better use of technology; and focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce waiting lists for NHS (a) surgeries and (b) scans.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Additional funding of £1.8 billion was announced as part of the October 2024 budget to directly support elective recovery and activity in 2024/25. This funding will support the National Health Service to deliver an additional two million operations, scans and appointments during the first year in Government, as a First Step to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.
We will support NHS performance across secondary and emergency care with approximately £1.5 billion capital funding in 2025/26. This will support new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners to build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures and over 1.25 million diagnostic tests as they come on-line.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
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 improve the accessibility of health centres in (a) rural and (b) remote areas.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In line with the Government’s Health Mission, our goal is to create a more equitable healthcare system that leaves no person or community behind. The Government recognises the health inequalities faced by rural communities in England, particularly around access to healthcare services. In response, we are working closely across the Department, with NHS England, and the regional Directors of Public Health to develop approaches that address these inequalities.
The Department supports statutory integrated care systems (ICSs) in delivering National Health Services across England. ICSs are partnerships of organisations which come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, and this includes considering adequate healthcare provision for populations in rural and remote areas.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to increase the number of NHS dentists in Kent.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Kent constituency, this is the NHS Kent and Medway ICB.
ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.