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 training places for nursing students there were in England in the 2023-24 financial year; and how many places there will be in the (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2017, universities have set the number of available nursing training places based on market demand. The Department does not set figures for the number of places. Data published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service shows that the number of accepted applicants to undergraduate nursing courses in England for 2023 was 20,790.
The NHS Long term Workforce Plan published in June 2023 outlines the nursing training intakes which underpin the plans ambitions across academic rather than financial years, and NHS England will work with the university sector to help achieve this. Across all nursing training intakes, including undergraduate, postgraduate and apprenticeships, these are 32,124 in 2025 academic year, and 33,981 in 2026 academic year.
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, on what dates has (a) she, (b) her Ministers and (c) her officials had discussions with representatives of the BMA since 23 December 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I met representatives of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors committee on 1 and 5 February 2024. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care met representatives of the junior doctors committee and the consultants committee at separate meetings on 8 February 2024. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy met representatives of the general practice committee on 31 January and 27 February 2024. Department officials are in regular contact with BMA representatives, with informal discussions held on most working days in 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, whether it remains her Department's policy that GP appointments should be available within two weeks; and what her planned timetable is for meeting that target.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have set an expectation that where clinically appropriate, patients should receive an appointment within two weeks of requesting one, or on the same day if their need is urgent. The general practice contract requires practices to offer patients an assessment of need, or signpost them to an appropriate service, on the day they contact the practice, so that patients are not asked to call back another day.
We are committed to making it quicker and easier for people to get the help they need from primary care. That is why we published our Primary Care Recovery Plan. We are providing £240 million of funding, an average of £60,000 per practice, so that practices can transition to digital telephone systems and consultation tools which will help patients to get support more quickly.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2024 to Question 12699 on Knee Replacements: Out-patients, what the average number of days was that patients stayed in hospital following knee replacement operations in 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Based on the latest data available from Hospital Episode Statistics, the median length of stay for finished consultant episodes where a knee replacement was the main procedure, was two days.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2024 to Question 13332, if she will publish the correspondence sent from NHS England to systems and trusts on 25 January on improving A&E performance.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published the correspondence to integrated care systems and trusts. The letters are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/76-four-hour-standard-regional-letters/
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 estimate she has made of the maximum capacity in medical schools for students for 2024/25.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England on 30 June 2023 sets out the aim of doubling the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion by increasing places by a third, to 10,000 a year, by 2028/29.
In October 2023, the Office for Students (OfS) was asked by myself and the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education to increase the number of home student places for the 2024/25 academic year by 205. This accelerated delivery of the LTWP.
The OfS was asked to engage with the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care, as well as NHS England and the General Medical Council, as it made decisions about how to allocate the funding for these places.
This process included consideration of the capacity of medical schools to take additional students in 2024/25. We are in the final stage of allocating 350 additional medical schools places for the 2025/26 academic year. We will set out plans for future years in due course.
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 estimate he has made of the potential impact of changes in assumed bed occupancy levels on the (a) number of hospital beds and (b) cost of the New Hospitals Programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The New Hospital Programme (NHP) is currently working towards a 92% bed occupancy assumption for schemes that use our standardised approach to building new hospitals, Hospital 2.0.
The NHP is working jointly with all National Health Service trusts in the programme to develop and design the right sized hospitals based on robust assumptions appropriate for local population’s health needs and clinical strategies, including the number of beds.
In May 2023, it was announced that the NHP is expected to be backed by over £20 billion of investment, enabling the programme to provide indicative funding allocations for schemes.
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 patients on an NHS elective waiting list are waiting for (a) a diagnostic test, (b) an outpatient appointment and (c) an elective procedure or surgery in England.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data requested is available at the following link:
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 estimate she has made of the average cost of a PET scanner.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2017/18, the Department implemented a new operating model and delivery body for National Health Service procurement, known as NHS Supply Chain. The NHS Supply Chain was created as a national body, through which NHS organisations could voluntarily make use of their collective purchasing power, and provide best value for money for the taxpayer.
Positron emission tomography scanners are available at a range of different prices in accordance with their level of specification. There are several ways for trusts to buy products, including through the NHS Supply Chain, supplier frameworks, and private sourcing companies or suppliers. Prices will vary according to purchase route, volumes purchased, and model type.
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, if she will publish the correspondence to NHS trusts requiring emergency departments to prioritise patients not in need of admission to hospital.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such correspondence has been issued to NHS Trusts.
NHS England wrote to systems and trusts on 25 January reiterating the need to improve A&E performance for all patients requiring emergency care, and emphasised some of the known best practice in emergency department processes to ensure delays to patient care are minimised.