Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 steps to (a) increase access to paediatric interventional radiology services and (b) ensure that every hospital has a strategy for dealing with out-of-hours emergencies requiring those services since 2010.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Surgery in Children Clinical Reference Group (CRG) provides clinical leadership and advice to NHS England and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Group, including on paediatric imaging and interventional radiology. Since the COVID-19 pandemic surgery restoration and recovery have been prioritised, however, the issues linked to access to interventional radiology are to be presented to the Women and Children’s Programme of Care on the 28 June 2023 and will also be presented to Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Networks to incorporate into their respective work programmes during 2023/24.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 support hospital trusts to adopt AI technologies to assist with (a) interventions for and (b) treatment of (i) cancers, (ii) strokes and (iii) heart conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is funding the AI in Health and Care Award which has provided £123 million to 86 artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The Award was created to accelerate the testing and evaluation of some of the most promising AI technologies that can support clinicians. Through the Award, projects are being funded to support clinicians in diagnosing and treating cancers, strokes, and heart conditions. For example, as of December 2023, AI for use in stroke is deployed in 92% of stroke units in England, substantially lowering the time it takes for people to receive treatment.
In June 2023, the Department announced a £21 million AI diagnostics fund to support imaging networks in England to adopt AI technologies into the lung cancer pathway. Funding has been allocated to 11 imaging networks, covering 64 trusts. In addition, the Department is piloting an AI deployment platform to see if a centralised platform could facilitate the deployment of AI technologies for radiology.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 implications for his policies of The Royal College of Radiologists’ findings that there are (a) 12 consultant paediatric interventional radiology posts in the UK and (b) five paediatric interventional radiology posts based outside London; and if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the number of those posts.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department will be discussing the geographic spread of posts with NHS England.
I have agreed to meet the Royal College of Radiologists so this matter will also be discussed in a meeting with them.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of Radiologists report entitled Improving Paediatric Interventional Radiology services in the UK, published in April 2023, if he will make assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of that report's findings that (a) there are 12 paediatric interventional radiology consultant posts in the UK and (b) of those posts, five are located outside London.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department will be discussing the geographic spread of posts with NHS England.
I have agreed to meet the Royal College of Radiologists so this matter will also be discussed in a meeting with them.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure equal access to paediatric interventional radiology services in the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly discusses the equity of access to health services with NHS England. We will discuss access to paediatric interventional radiology services specifically with NHS England.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 impact of the shortfall in clinical radiology consultants in the South East region on (a) diagnostic waiting times, (b) patient outcomes and (c) staff wellbeing in the region.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the South East region, local systems are taking steps to address diagnostic waiting times, patient outcomes and staff wellbeing in the area. These include initiatives such as upskilling other staff such as radiographers to undertake advanced practice; investing over £40 million in digital infrastructure while working with industry partners around artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions; rolling out the i-refer system to support general practitioners (GPs) to appropriately refer for imaging tests; creating imaging networks to enable departments to provide mutual support and aid across the region.
£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years including increasing the number of Community Diagnostic Centres up to 160 by March 2025. This investment will support the ambition for 75% of patients with an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days by March 2024. This is in line with to NHS Long Term Plan ambitions on early diagnosis and improving patient outcomes.
The health and wellbeing of National Health Service staff is taken seriously, and NHS England have put in place a wide ranging package of support for NHS staff. This includes emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made recent representations made to (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) NHS England on investment in the clinical (i) radiology and (ii) oncology workforce.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues and with NHS England to discuss issues relating to the National Health Service workforce.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the number of of paediatric interventional radiologists employed per million children in the (a) NHS and (b) US.
Answered by Will Quince
The Surgery in Children Clinical Reference Group (CRG) provides clinical leadership and advice to NHS England and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Group, including on paediatric imaging and interventional radiology. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Programme of Care, the CRG and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) have had to prioritise surgery restoration and recovery, however, the issues linked to the concerns raised about access to interventional radiology are to be presented to the Women and Children’s Programme of Care on the 28 June 2023 and will also be presented to ODNs to incorporate into their respective network work programmes during 2023/24.
The number of paediatric interventional radiologists will also be the subject of discussions between NHS England and the Department.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet with representatives of the Royal College of Radiologists to discuss the findings and recommendations of their report entitled Improving Paediatric Interventional Radiology services in the UK, published in April 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I would be pleased to meet with the Royal College of Radiologists to discuss their recent report into paediatric interventional radiology.
Nov. 12 2010
Source Page: Table showing the number of certificates of sponsorship assigned by occupation, job title and geographical area of sponsorship in 2009.Found: †Consultant - Haematology†Consultant - Obstetrics & Gynaecology†Consultant - Psychiatry†Consultant (Radiology