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Written Question
Hospices: Children
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Baroness Goudie (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 extent to which children’s hospices rely on the annual £25 million funding from NHS England; and what plans they have to secure this funding beyond 2024–25 to prevent a shortfall in services.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

While 2023/24 marked the final year of the Children’s Hospice Grant in its previous format, in 2024/25, NHS England continued to provide an additional £25 million of funding for children and young people’s hospices, maintaining the level of grant funding from 2023/24. For the first time, this funding was transacted by integrated care boards (ICBs), on behalf of NHS England, rather than being centrally administered as before.

The Department and NHS England are aware that the shift to the dissemination of funding via ICBs in 2024/25 has not been as smooth a transition as we would have hoped. However, we are working closely with NHS England to resolve any remaining issues to the 2024/25 funding, and we are also jointly considering the future of this important funding stream beyond 2024/25.

The Minister of State for Care recently met NHS England, Together for Short Lives, and one of the co-chairs of the Children Who Need Palliative Care All-Party Parliamentary Group, Lord Balfe, to discuss children’s palliative and end of life care, and this funding stream was discussed at length at that meeting.


Written Question
Hospitals: Newbury
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)

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 support NHS services in Newbury, in the context of his Department's review of the New Hospital Programme.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises that delivering high quality National Health Services requires the right facilities and support systems in the right places. We understand that investment in capital projects, whether through allocations prioritised locally or through national programmes, is important in achieving this.

We inherited a New Hospital Programme which was delayed and the funding for which ran out in March. We are reviewing it to provide people in Newbury and across the country with a realistic and costed timetable for delivery. Newbury is served by the Royal Berkshire Hospital scheme which is in scope of the review. The review is feeding into the Spending Review process where the Government will confirm the outcome.

Managing the local capital budget for its area and reconfiguring services, which includes addressing estates issues, as well as allocating funds according to local priorities, including investment to support healthcare services, are matters for local NHS organisations. Any future national capital programmes to support NHS organisations delivering local and national priorities will also be considered as part of the Spending Review process.


Written Question
Nurses: Schools
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement a robust system to track the school nurse workforce to enable informed decision-making and resource allocation.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are committed to creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The child health workforce, including school nurses, who lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme is central to how we support children, young people, and families.

We are also committed to training the staff we need to ensure everyone receives care from the right professional, when and where they need it. We will want to assure ourselves, and the National Health Service, that the current workforce plan will deliver the reform needed. We will also need to do this in light of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Local authorities are best placed to determine local workforce needs, as they know their communities best. Determining the skills and workforce requirements should be underpinned by a local plan and led by the area’s identified health needs.

The Chief Public Health Nurse Office has established a programme of work which aims to improve the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, which includes school nursing. This will include a review of the school nursing workforce data in England.


Written Question
Community Diagnostic Centres
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) first stage and (b) second stage cancer patients received a diagnosis following an appointment at a community diagnostic centre opened since the 2021 Spending Review.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Data on the routes to diagnosis for cancer, which is collated and published by the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) does not specify the setting where the diagnostic test took place, so we do not hold the information on diagnoses following appointments in CDCs.

As of the end of August 2024, the diagnostic waiting list was 1,559,284, where 373,126 (23.9%) patients were waiting over six weeks. This compares to 1,428,415 as at the end of October 2021, following the 2021 Spending Review, where 356,784 (25%) patients were waiting over 6-weeks for a diagnostic test. 2024/25 NHS Operational Planning Guidance set an objective for just 5% to be waiting six weeks. Due to seasonal effects, some care should be exercised when comparing six week wait percentages figures in different months of the year.

In August 2024, performance against the Faster Diagnosis Standard was 75.5%, 0.5 percentage points above the operational standard. Due to the impact of working days per month and seasonality, impacting the amount of activity per month, we cannot directly compare performance to October 2021.

Monthly activity and waiting list data for diagnostics is published monthly and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostics-waiting-times-and-activity/monthly-diagnostics-waiting-times-and-activity/


Written Question
Surgical Hubs
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many procedures were delivered by surgical hubs opened since 27 October 2021 in (a) January, (b) February, (c) March, (d) April, (e) May, (f) June and (g) July 2024.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Between October 2021 and 4 July 2024, 18 new Targeted Investment Fund (TIF2) funded surgical hubs have opened. Elective Hub data is only available from April 2024, when the Elective Hub dashboard was established.

Of the 18 new TIF2 funded surgical hubs, only 11 surgical hubs are reporting data. The data shows that 6,302 surgical procedures were delivered by the 11 reporting hubs in April 2024; 6,142 in May 2024, and; 5,959 in June 2024. There were 7,572,563 pathways on the elective waiting list in April 2024; 7,603,812 in May 2024; 7,622,949 in June 2024 and 7,624,600 in July 2024.


Written Question
Surgical Hubs
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many procedures were delivered by surgical hubs opened since the 2021 Spending Review, as of 4 July 2024.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Between the 2021 Spending Review and 4 July 2024, 18 new Targeted Investment Fund (TIF2) funded surgical hubs have opened. Elective Hub data is only available from April 2024, when the Elective Hub dashboard was established.

Of the 18 new TIF2 funded surgical hubs, only 11 surgical hubs are reporting data. This data shows that between 1 April 2024 and 1 July 2024 the 11 reporting surgical hubs have delivered 18,403 procedures.

Between 30 April 2021 and 30 June 2024, the elective waiting list increased by 2,499,232 from 5,123,717 to 7,622,949.


Written Question
Sepsis
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will run a national campaign to raise awareness of sepsis.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Local National Health Service trusts may already choose to run local public awareness campaigns on sepsis.

Recent evidence suggests that there is high awareness of sepsis among the general public. The Department is focused on improving the clinical awareness and recognition of sepsis by healthcare professionals, so that unwell and deteriorating patients are identified promptly and started on life-saving treatment.

NHS England has launched several training programmes aimed at improving the diagnosis and early management of sepsis. These programmes are regularly reviewed and revised with support from subject matter experts as new national sepsis guidance is implemented.


Written Question
Nurses: Schools
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to end the geographical disparity in care by ensuring equitable distribution of school nurses on the basis of need.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are committed to creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The child health workforce, including school nurses, who lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme is central to how we support children, young people, and families.

We are also committed to training the staff we need to ensure everyone receives care from the right professional, when and where they need it. We will want to assure ourselves, and the National Health Service, that the current workforce plan will deliver the reform needed. We will also need to do this in light of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Local authorities are best placed to determine local workforce needs, as they know their communities best. Determining the skills and workforce requirements should be underpinned by a local plan and led by the area’s identified health needs.

The Chief Public Health Nurse Office has established a programme of work which aims to improve the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, which includes school nursing. This will include a review of the school nursing workforce data in England.


Written Question
Nurses: Schools
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of school nurses to ensure adequate coverage across the country.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are committed to creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The child health workforce, including school nurses, who lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme is central to how we support children, young people, and families.

We are also committed to training the staff we need to ensure everyone receives care from the right professional, when and where they need it. We will want to assure ourselves, and the National Health Service, that the current workforce plan will deliver the reform needed. We will also need to do this in light of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Local authorities are best placed to determine local workforce needs, as they know their communities best. Determining the skills and workforce requirements should be underpinned by a local plan and led by the area’s identified health needs.

The Chief Public Health Nurse Office has established a programme of work which aims to improve the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, which includes school nursing. This will include a review of the school nursing workforce data in England.


Written Question
Brain: Tumours
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to include brain tumours in personalised mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies research.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Between 2018 and 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has directly invested £11.3 million in research projects and programmes focused on brain tumours. This has enabled 227 brain cancer research studies to take place. Brain cancer remains one of the hardest to treat cancers, which is why in September, the NIHR announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research.

The Government is supporting the development of personalised mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies through our partnership with BioNTech, which aims to provide up to 10,000 United Kingdom based patients with mRNA-based immunotherapies by 2030. The NHS England Cancer Vaccine Launchpad has been established to accelerate the development of cancer vaccines. We are not able to comment at this stage on the pipeline of clinical trials that BioNTech will launch in the UK over the coming years.