Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
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 GP appointments in Walsall South constituency in the past 12 months; and what that number was in 2013.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested. However, in the 12 months to September 2022, there were 6.67 million general practice appointments in the NHS Black Country Integrated Care System area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Of these, 65% were conducted face-to-face.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Walsall South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Walsall South.
NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to help tackle NHS workforce shortages in Walsall South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention, including in Walsall South.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Walsall South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Walsall South. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.
The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of malnutrition in Walsall South constituency.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with diabetes in Walsall South constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows number of people that were diagnosed with diabetes in Walsall South constituency in each of the calendar years from 2016 to 2020, broken down by diabetes type.
Year of diagnosis | Number of people diagnosed with diabetes | |
Type 1 | Type 2 and Other | |
2016 | 10 | 450 |
2017 | 15 | 485 |
2018 | 25 | 505 |
2019 | 15 | 500 |
2020 | 15 | 375 |
Source: National Diabetes Audit
Notes:
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when her Department will publish the Government's Vaccine Strategy.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Development of a vaccine strategy remains under review given the evolving understanding from the COVID-19 vaccination programme and the existing flu and routine immunisation programmes.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Walsall South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Walsall South. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Walsall South.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GP surgeries were rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in Walsall South constituency in each six month period of the last three years.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is shown in the following table.
Date | Number of practices | Proportion of practices |
3 October 2022 | 19 | 79.2% |
4 April 2022 | 19 | 79.2% |
1 October 2021 | 18 | 75% |
5 April 2021 | 18 | 75% |
1 October 2020 | 17 | 75% |
6 April 2020 | 18 | 72% |
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of care homes were rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in Walsall South constituency in each six month period of the last three years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The following table shows the number and proportion of care homes in Walsall South constituency rated as ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission in each six month period in the last three years.
Date | Number of care homes | Proportion of care homes |
3 October 2022 | 12 | 54.5% |
4 April 2022 | 13 | 61.9% |
1 October 2021 | 13 | 61.9% |
5 April 2021 | 13 | 61.9% |
1 October 2020 | 11 | 55% |
6 April 2020 | 11 | 57.9% |