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Written Question
General Practitioners: Labour Turnover
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding NHS England plans to allocate to Integrated Care Boards for local GP retention schemes for 2024-25; and through what mechanism that funding will be allocated following the closure of the General Practice Fellowship and the Supporting Mentors schemes.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


Written Question
NHS: Expenditure
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 12 October 2021 to Question 51702 on NHS: Expenditure, how much NHS England, clinical commissioning groups and integrated care boards spent in aggregate on (a) mental health services, (b) acute health services, (c) social care services, (d) primary medical services, (e) specialised services, (f) NHS continuing healthcare and (g) all other recorded spending categories in each financial year since 2015-16; and how much those organisations plan to spend in aggregate in each of those areas in the (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25 financial years.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


Written Question
NHS: Digital Technology
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the (a) final outturn spend for 2022-23, (b) forecast outturn for 2023-24 and (c) planned budget for 2024-25 for the NHS England Frontline Digitisation programme budget.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


Written Question
NHS: Digital Technology
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual budget for the NHS England Frontline Digitisation programme was (a) when that programme was established and (b) at the start of financial year (i) 2022-23, (ii) 2023-24 and (iii) 2024-25.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


Written Question
Medical Records: Children
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

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 new-born children were give a digital NHS personal child health record in the last 12 months.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Every baby is allocated a National Health Service number as soon as their birth is notified by the attending midwife. This is linked to the NHS number of the birth mother. Once registered at a general practice (GP) surgery, a baby will also have a GP record. This is the first digital health record which most babies will receive, and is linked to their existing NHS number.

The aim of the Digital Personal Child Health Record programme is not to create a new, standalone record, but to use existing infrastructure to facilitate better coordination between existing records. This will support families in accessing the information they need when they need it, and for professionals to offer more informed, joined-up care.

We have improved access to relevant content and information about maternity, early years, and Start for Life, via the NHS App, and made it easier for families to register a new baby digitally at a GP practice. Over 2000 practices have already adopted the solution, which consists of an online registration service and a new paper form. GPs will be contractually required to adopt and offer both formats, from October 2024.

We have also prepared the launch of a pilot programme which will allow anyone with parental responsibility to apply digitally for access to their child’s record, for any child up to 13 years old. This has now launched in 70 GPs in England, and will make it much easier for parents to manage a child's digital health record. For example, once rolled out across England, this will enable the parent or carer to view their baby’s digital GP record, book appointments, and request prescriptions, all via the NHS App.


Written Question
Medical Records: Children
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she expects every child to have a personal child health record.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Every baby is allocated a National Health Service number as soon as their birth is notified by the attending midwife. This is linked to the NHS number of the birth mother. Once registered at a general practice (GP) surgery, a baby will also have a GP record. This is the first digital health record which most babies will receive, and is linked to their existing NHS number.

The aim of the Digital Personal Child Health Record programme is not to create a new, standalone record, but to use existing infrastructure to facilitate better coordination between existing records. This will support families in accessing the information they need when they need it, and for professionals to offer more informed, joined-up care.

We have improved access to relevant content and information about maternity, early years, and Start for Life, via the NHS App, and made it easier for families to register a new baby digitally at a GP practice. Over 2000 practices have already adopted the solution, which consists of an online registration service and a new paper form. GPs will be contractually required to adopt and offer both formats, from October 2024.

We have also prepared the launch of a pilot programme which will allow anyone with parental responsibility to apply digitally for access to their child’s record, for any child up to 13 years old. This has now launched in 70 GPs in England, and will make it much easier for parents to manage a child's digital health record. For example, once rolled out across England, this will enable the parent or carer to view their baby’s digital GP record, book appointments, and request prescriptions, all via the NHS App.


Written Question
Integrated Care Boards
Friday 15th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Integrated Care Boards delivered value-based activity of at least 104% of the 2019/20 baseline in 2022/23; and which Integrated Care Boards did not.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Nine integrated care boards (ICBs) delivered value-weighted activity (VWA) of at least 104% of the 2019/20 baseline in 2022/23, they are:

- NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB;

- NHS South East London ICB;

- NHS North East London ICB;

- NHS North Central London ICB;

- NHS North West London ICB;

- NHS Coventry and Warwickshire ICB;

- NHS North East and North Cumbria ICB;

- NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB; and

- NHS Kent and Medway ICB.

The following 10 ICBs delivered VWA of at least 100% of the 2019/20 baseline in 2022/23:

- NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB;

- NHS South West London ICB;

- NHS Lincolnshire ICB;

- NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB;

- NHS Northamptonshire ICB;

- NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB;

- NHS West Yorkshire ICB;

- NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB;

- NHS Devon ICB; and

- NHS Somerset ICB.

The remaining 23 ICBs did not deliver a VWA over 100% of the 2019/20 baseline in 2022/23.

Lower levels of elective activity were due to ongoing COVID-19 pressures and longer lengths of stay, as well as extended industrial action which started in December 2022. Providers were therefore allowed to retain elective funding to cover these costs. The department has put in place additional measures to monitor Elective Recovery Funding and related spending.


Written Question
Magnetic Resonance Imagers
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement at page 34 of the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, published on 6 March 2024, on upgrading more than 100 MRI scanners with AI, what the average time taken for patients to receive relevant test results is; and if she will make an estimate of the average time for such results to be received when the new scanners are in use.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


Written Question
Magnetic Resonance Imagers
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 2.20 of Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, if she will publish the modelling used to estimate the number of patients that will be impacted by the proposed upgrading of 100 MRI scanners.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


Written Question
NHS: Databases
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many trusts have agreed to join the federated data platform as of 7 March 2024.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.