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 he is taking to increase access to healthcare services in rural areas.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan has set out a long-term vision to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future. Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of the 10-Year Health Plan, to ensure the NHS is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it.
This includes ending the postcode lottery for cancer patients through introducing new training places targeted at trusts with the biggest workforce gaps, prioritising rural and coastal areas.
There are also a range of adjustments made to integrated care board funding allocations that account for the fact that the costs of providing health care may vary between rural and urban areas. These adjustments specifically support remote or sparsely populated areas.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 support earlier diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes in babies, toddlers and children presenting with symptoms in primary care in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local health commissioners and providers in Surrey are responsible for assessing how existing clinical guidance is being applied across primary care settings.
NHS England is undertaking a review of options for supporting primary care services in the identification of acute onset Type 1 diabetes in babies and children and in doing so will engage with relevant national organisations and partners.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, we will continue to support people living with diabetes, including through the rollout of new wearable technologies such as hybrid closed loop (HCL) systems. The rollout of HCL systems is backed by £107 million in 2026/27 and has been made available to over 23,000 additional people since 2023/24.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 consistency with which existing clinical guidance on Type 1 Diabetes is applied across primary care settings in Surrey.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local health commissioners and providers in Surrey are responsible for assessing how existing clinical guidance is being applied across primary care settings.
NHS England is undertaking a review of options for supporting primary care services in the identification of acute onset Type 1 diabetes in babies and children and in doing so will engage with relevant national organisations and partners.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, we will continue to support people living with diabetes, including through the rollout of new wearable technologies such as hybrid closed loop (HCL) systems. The rollout of HCL systems is backed by £107 million in 2026/27 and has been made available to over 23,000 additional people since 2023/24.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 address regional variation in access to continuous glucose monitoring, including in Dorset.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning health services to meet the needs of their populations. In doing so they must have regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, including for diabetes. The National Diabetes Audit (NDA), and the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) along with NHS Digital’s NDA and NPDA dashboards provide comprehensive data on care processes and outcomes and highlight variation. The dashboards help commissioners, providers, and paediatric diabetes units benchmark themselves and target improvements.
NHS Dorset has a policy in place for the provision of prescribable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
In order to ensure that Dorset patients are being treated appropriately, use of CGM is tracked against patient eligibility criteria as set out in NICE guidance and the NHS Dorset CGM policy.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was allocated to each Integrated Care Board in England for long covid services in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are allocated funding by the National Health Service based on a statistical formula which takes into account population size and needs, so that funding distribution is fair and objective. Further details on ICB funding allocation can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/allocations/
The allocation of funding for specialised services, including long COVID, are at the discretion of local ICBs to best meet the needs of their local population.
Commissioning guidance, from December 2023, presents guidelines for the commissioning and oversight of post-COVID services by ICBs in England for adults, and children and young people from April 2024. Since then, in line with the NHS operating framework and the establishment of integrated care systems, the commissioning of post-COVID services has been the responsibility of ICBs. However, according to this guidance, post-COVID services should comprise an integrated pathway of assessment, medical treatment, and multifaceted rehabilitation, including psychology, with direct access to required diagnostics. Referral should be via a single point of access which is managed by clinician-led triage.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether future NHS planning guidance will require Integrated Care Boards to provide dedicated long covid pathways.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are allocated funding by the National Health Service based on a statistical formula which takes into account population size and needs, so that funding distribution is fair and objective. Further details on ICB funding allocation can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/allocations/
The allocation of funding for specialised services, including long COVID, are at the discretion of local ICBs to best meet the needs of their local population.
Commissioning guidance, from December 2023, presents guidelines for the commissioning and oversight of post-COVID services by ICBs in England for adults, and children and young people from April 2024. Since then, in line with the NHS operating framework and the establishment of integrated care systems, the commissioning of post-COVID services has been the responsibility of ICBs. However, according to this guidance, post-COVID services should comprise an integrated pathway of assessment, medical treatment, and multifaceted rehabilitation, including psychology, with direct access to required diagnostics. Referral should be via a single point of access which is managed by clinician-led triage.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to extend NHS eligibility for the Shingrix shingles vaccine to older adults who previously received Zostavax.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is an independent departmental expert committee which advises the Government on matters related to vaccination and immunisation.
In November 2024, the JCVI provided advice to the Government on eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme. This included advice that the Government should consider expanding the shingles vaccination offer to include older adult cohorts aged 80 years old and over, regardless of whether these older individuals have previously been eligible for, or have been vaccinated with, Zostavax. The Department is carefully considering this advice as it sets the policy on who should be offered shingles vaccinations.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiotherapy machines are currently in operation in NHS hospitals, and how this compares with projected clinical need over the next five and ten years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of radiotherapy treatment machines in use across the National Health Service in England is not recorded as part of a nationally mandated data collection.
The commissioning of radiotherapy services is overseen by local systems. They have the responsibility to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place for local populations, taking account of the different factors that can affect demand and capacity. The projected number of machines needed to meet future demand depends on a range of factors including clinical practice, for instance fraction protocols, patient choice, between different equivalent treatments, local working practices, for instance the hours and days of operation, as well as the technical specification of treatment machines, and the throughput per hour.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the preliminary findings of the ELSA Study that screens children for Type 1 diabetes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is guided by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee which makes its recommendations based on internationally recognised criteria and a rigorous evidence review and consultation process. It is only where the committee is confident that screening would provide more good than harm that a screening programme is recommended, as all medical interventions carry an inherent risk.
The UK NSC is aware of the ELSA study and looks forward to receiving the results of this study when the trial is complete.
Asked by: Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 13 January (HL13304), what plans there are for co-operation between the Independent Review for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism and the Young People and Work Report led by Alan Milburn.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Independent Review for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD, and Autism, and the Young People and Work Report led by Alan Milburn are complementary. The chairs and the secretariats are in regular discussion to ensure cooperation.