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Written Question
Audiology: Health Services
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

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 have introduced (a) community audiology services and (b) self-referral for community audiology.

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

Information on how many integrated care boards (ICBs) have introduced community audiology services is not held centrally by the Department or NHS England. As part of an ICB self-assessment on the introduction of self-referral, conducted in September 2023, 26 ICBs reported having self-referral in place for community audiology in one or more services, with more ICBs reporting they had plans to introduce it later in the year, or as part of recommissioning arrangements for 2024/25.


Written Question
Audiology: Health Services
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

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 reduce waiting times for hospital hearing (a) tests and (b) aid fitting in areas where no community audiology service is commissioned.

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

Audiology services are locally commissioned by the 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. Waiting times for audiology assessments are recorded through the national diagnostic activity and waiting times collection. This data is reviewed and monitored monthly across the ICBs and NHS England.

NHS England has been working to enable improvement in access to audiology services including through developing an improvement guide, endorsed by the British Audiology Association, which outlines approaches the ICBs can take to address waiting times. NHS England’s National Diagnostics programme has supported implementation of this guide through a series of webinars and case studies to share learning.


Written Question
Medical Equipment: Waste Disposal
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data centrally about levels of (a) reuse and (b) discard of NHS equipment.

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

The Department published the inaugural Medical Technology Strategy in February 2023, which included a focus on improving resource efficiency. The Department is working with industry, the health and care sector, and academic partners to develop medical technology systems that support reuse, remanufacture, and material recovery, by default. The Department is exploring options for reuse, remanufacture, and material recovery in medical devices, through its Design for Life programme. This includes developing regulatory, commercial, and infrastructure and policy environments that support these aims. As part of the programme, the Department recognises we will need to define future data requirements, and align digital infrastructure to improve the gathering of core data.


NHS England has developed a waste planning tool for all National Health Service providers, consistent with the Clinical Waste Strategy, which includes improved waste segregation, minimisation, and increased reuse programmes. This will lead to reductions in the road miles the waste travels, increases in the use of re-usable sharps bins, and furthers plans made towards the achievement of Net Zero Carbon from waste management.

NHS England has an ambition to expand existing walking aid refurbishment schemes. Arrangements for the return and reuse of walking aids are managed locally, and a number of NHS trusts already have local return and reuse schemes, with over 200 return sites now featured on the Recycle Now website. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.recyclenow.com/recycle-an-item/walking-aids


Written Question
Social Services: Labour Turnover and Recruitment
Thursday 25th January 2024

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase staff (a) recruitment and (b) retention in the adult social care sector.

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

On 10 January 2024, the Department announced a package of social care workforce reforms, to help recruit and retain talent by providing new, accredited qualifications, digital training and funded apprenticeships. These plans include the launch of the care workforce pathway, which will provide, for the first time ever, a national career structure for the adult social care workforce, covering the breadth and complexity of care.

In addition, the latest phase of the Made with Care recruitment campaign launched at the start of October 2023, and is running until the end of March 2024. It consists of advertising appearing on catch-up television, social media, radio and online, to highlight the amazing work that staff across the adult social care sector do and motivating suitable candidates to apply.


Written Question
Cancer: Waiting Lists
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for treatments for (a) breast, (b) ovarian and (c) prostate cancer.

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

Reducing waiting times for treatments of all types of cancer is a priority for the Government, as is increasing early cancer diagnosis as this is a key contributor to reducing cancer health inequalities. We are expanding capacity through our community diagnostic centres (CDCs) supported by £2.3 billion of capital funding with 150 CDCs currently operational and having delivered over six million additional tests, checks and scans including vital cancer checks since January 2021.

The planned Major Conditions Strategy will look at the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer and will consider a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for a range of cancer patients, including those less survivable cancers.

NHS England has commissioned six cancer clinical audits which will provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatments and outcomes for patients, including ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney cancer and primary and metastatic breast cancer. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first outcomes expected in September 2024.


Written Question
NHS Learning Support Fund: Pharmacy
Monday 22nd January 2024

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing pharmacy students to access the NHS Learning Support Fund.

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

The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review. At all times the Government must strike a balance between the level of support students receive and the need to make best use of public funds to deliver value for money. There are no immediate plans to make changes to the scheme design.


Written Question
Nitrous Oxide: Health Services
Friday 21st July 2023

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the accessibility of (a) physical and (b) mental healthcare for nitrous oxide users.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

No specific assessment has been made.

The Independent Review of Drugs led by Dame Carol Black highlighted the challenges people using drugs experience in accessing mental and physical health treatment and made a number of recommendations to improve this. The Government’s 10-year drug strategy is the formal, substantive response to the Independent Review of Drugs and accepts all its main recommendations, including the recommendations to improve the provision of high-quality mental and physical healthcare treatment for people with substance misuse conditions.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists
Tuesday 20th June 2023

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

In February 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinically-led review of NHS Access Standards. This included one for children, young people and their families or carers presenting to community-based mental health services to start receiving care within four weeks from referral. We are now working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the next steps.


Written Question
Streptococcus: Screening
Friday 28th April 2023

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) help tackle high rates of Group B Strep infection and (b) improve access to (i) screening, (ii) diagnosis and (iii) treatment for Group B Strep infections in (A) Black and (B) Asian (1) women and (2) babies.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Midwives are a key source of information for new and expectant parents on group B strep (GBS), so it is critical that they are well-informed and this awareness will help eliminate these serious, yet often avoidable, infections in new-born babies. Group B Strep Support and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have an evidence-based i-learn module on GBS that is freely available to RCM members. It would be beneficial for as many midwives as possible to take the training to increase awareness of GBS.

Public Health England’s national programme Start4Life provides advice and practical guidance to parents-to-be and families with babies and under five years old, to help them adopt healthy behaviours and build parenting skills. The Start4Life website offers guidance for pregnant mothers on GBS which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/start4life

Screening for GBS is not routinely offered to all pregnant women in the United Kingdom. A risk-based approach has been adopted, whereby those women identified as at risk of having a baby affected by GBS are offered antibiotics in labour.

The GBS carriage rate varies among racial groups, however the highest rates occur within people of black African ancestry and the lowest in people of South Asian ancestry. Evidence shows that continuity of carer can significantly improve outcomes for women and their babies from ethnic minorities and those living in deprived areas. NHS England wrote to all trusts regarding the Midwifery Continuity of Carer (MCoC) stating that where locally it is decided that provision of MCoC can continue, NHS England continues to encourage prioritised rollout to areas with a high proportion of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity women, as well as areas of high deprivation.


Written Question
Streptococcus: Screening
Friday 28th April 2023

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to ensure that healthcare providers receive adequate (a) training and (b) resources to (i) diagnose and (ii) treat Group B Streptococcus infections.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Midwives are a key source of information for new and expectant parents on group B strep (GBS), so it is critical that they are well-informed and this awareness will help eliminate these serious, yet often avoidable, infections in new-born babies. Group B Strep Support and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have an evidence-based i-learn module on GBS that is freely available to RCM members. It would be beneficial for as many midwives as possible to take the training to increase awareness of GBS.

Public Health England’s national programme Start4Life provides advice and practical guidance to parents-to-be and families with babies and under five years old, to help them adopt healthy behaviours and build parenting skills. The Start4Life website offers guidance for pregnant mothers on GBS which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/start4life

Screening for GBS is not routinely offered to all pregnant women in the United Kingdom. A risk-based approach has been adopted, whereby those women identified as at risk of having a baby affected by GBS are offered antibiotics in labour.

The GBS carriage rate varies among racial groups, however the highest rates occur within people of black African ancestry and the lowest in people of South Asian ancestry. Evidence shows that continuity of carer can significantly improve outcomes for women and their babies from ethnic minorities and those living in deprived areas. NHS England wrote to all trusts regarding the Midwifery Continuity of Carer (MCoC) stating that where locally it is decided that provision of MCoC can continue, NHS England continues to encourage prioritised rollout to areas with a high proportion of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity women, as well as areas of high deprivation.