Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional NHS dental appointments have been made available for patients as a result of the Dental Recovery Plan in Warrington South constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Dentistry Recovery Plan, backed by £200 million, will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for National Health Service dental patients. It will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. A New Patient Premium is supporting dentists to take on new patients and since the end of January, nearly 500 more practices have said they are open to new patients.
We are committed to evaluating the impacts of the measures included in our plan, and we will publish monthly data on progress once available. Dentists have two months from the date of completion of a course of NHS treatment to submit an FP17 claim for payment.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of cannabis usage on mental health.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has published a 10-year drug strategy, and is investing an extra £532 million between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services, including for cannabis users. No recent assessment has been made by the Department of the potential impact specifically of cannabis usage on mental health. However, the Department and NHS England are developing a joint action plan aimed at improving the provision of care for people with co-occurring mental health and drug or alcohol-related conditions. This programme of work will improve access to mental health services for people with drug and alcohol misuse conditions, as well as improve the links between mental health and substance misuse services.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of high rates of childhood obesity on future diabetes rates; and what assessment they have made of the impact that this will have on the NHS's future spend on diabetes.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has data from national diabetes audits showing the increasing numbers of young people being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes over the past five years. NHS England knows that 93.5% of children with Type 2 diabetes that are under the care of paediatric diabetes units are overweight or obese, with a body mass index above the 85th centile after correction for age and gender.
Core20PLUS5 – Children and Young People includes diabetes as a key clinical area and has two key areas of clinical focus, namely to increase access to real time continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps for children and young people in the most deprived quintiles and from ethnic minority backgrounds, and increase the proportion of children and young people with Type 2 diabetes receiving all the care processes recommended in guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Key diabetes health metrics, such as blood glucose levels, are poorest in young adults aged between 19 and 25 years old. To address this age-related health inequality, 15 ‘Transition and Young Adult’ pilots were established by the NHS Diabetes Programme in 2022-2025 to test models of care for young adults with diabetes and those transitioning from paediatric to adult diabetes services. The pilots will be evaluated to inform the evidence base on how to best deliver care and improve outcomes for this group.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department takes steps to support breastfeeding (a) support groups and (b) charities in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s vision, set out in The Best Start for Life: A Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days, is that every parent and carer has access to high quality infant feeding services in their local area.
Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme, we are investing £50 million into infant feeding services. This is enabling participating local authorities, including Haringey, to design and deliver a blended offer to ensure all mothers can meet their breastfeeding goals. The investment is being used to increase the range of advice and support available, including peer support. Local authorities are working with the voluntary sector to deliver services.
We are also using programme investment to increase the capacity of the National Breastfeeding Helpline, managed by the Breastfeeding Network. In March 2024, we launched a trial of extended helpline opening hours, so that support and advice is available at any time of the day or night, every day of the year.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 breastfeeding rates.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s vision, set out in The Best Start for Life: A Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days, is that every parent and carer has access to high quality infant feeding services in their local area.
Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme, we are investing £50 million into infant feeding services. This is enabling participating local authorities, including Haringey, to design and deliver a blended offer to ensure all mothers can meet their breastfeeding goals. The investment is being used to increase the range of advice and support available, including peer support. Local authorities are working with the voluntary sector to deliver services.
We are also using programme investment to increase the capacity of the National Breastfeeding Helpline, managed by the Breastfeeding Network. In March 2024, we launched a trial of extended helpline opening hours, so that support and advice is available at any time of the day or night, every day of the year.
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 patients with inflammatory skin conditions to manage the impact of their condition on their mental health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is committed to supporting everyone’s mental health and wellbeing, and ensuring that the right support is in place, including for those with long term physical health conditions such as inflammatory skin conditions. This is why, between 2018/19 and 2023/24, National Health Service spending on mental health has increased by £4.7 billion, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
The NHS continues to develop the NHS Talking Therapies Long Term Conditions services to ensure that people with a long-term physical health condition, such as an inflammatory skin condition, have access to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended psychological therapies.
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, if she will introduce a national register of people with silicosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans to introduce a national register of people with silicosis. Data on the diagnosis of, and deaths due to, silicosis is collected by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Office for National Statistics. The HSE’s report, Silicosis and Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis Statistics in Great Britain, contains the latest data of the estimated number of new cases and deaths.
Asked by: Baroness Coussins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the public consultation on updating the NHS constitution is brought to the attention of individuals whose first language is not English.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to supporting people from all backgrounds in accessing the NHS Constitution consultation, in part by ensuring the consultation is well publicised and reaches multiple audiences, including those whose first language is not English.
While there are no plans to publish the consultation in additional languages, the Department is working at pace to publish an easy-read version. The simplified language will make the information more accessible for a broader audience, which may support those whose first language is not English, to access and respond to the consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Coussins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the public consultation on updating the NHS constitution, published on 30 April, is available in languages other than English, and if so, in which languages.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to supporting people from all backgrounds in accessing the NHS Constitution consultation, in part by ensuring the consultation is well publicised and reaches multiple audiences, including those whose first language is not English.
While there are no plans to publish the consultation in additional languages, the Department is working at pace to publish an easy-read version. The simplified language will make the information more accessible for a broader audience, which may support those whose first language is not English, to access and respond to the consultation.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - South Staffordshire)
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 increase the provision of covid-19 booster vaccinations to community pharmacies.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Community pharmacies have been taking part in the COVID-19 vaccination programme since January 2021. NHS England has recently changed the model for procuring COVID-19 vaccination services to an opt-in model. All community pharmacies who applied, and met the minimum requirements, received a contract to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations. This enabled more pharmacies to support the autumn 2023/24 booster campaign, administering COVID-19 vaccinations alongside flu vaccinations, which are also increasingly being administered in these settings.