Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of repeat prescriptions that have been ordered through the NHS app in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently over 34.3 million sign-ups on the NHS App, enabling users to access a range of National Health Services, such as booking and managing general practice (GP) and hospital appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions, and viewing their prospective GP health record. The following table shows the number of repeat prescriptions ordered via the NHS App in each of the last 12 months, as well as the mean and total of repeat prescriptions:
Date | Repeat prescription orders via NHS App |
April 2023 | 2,449,182 |
May 2023 | 2,709,129 |
June 2023 | 2,650,714 |
July 2023 | 2,825,324 |
August 2023 | 2,885,337 |
September 2023 | 2,819,310 |
October 2023 | 3,105,964 |
November 2023 | 3,197,218 |
December 2023 | 3,124,667 |
January 2024 | 3,559,170 |
February 2024 | 3,349,017 |
March 2024 | 3,669,727 |
Mean | 3,028,730 |
Total | 36,344,759 |
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to bring forward a workforce strategy for social care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We set out our national strategy for the social care workforce in our People at The Heart of Care white paper in December 2021, and in 2023 we published the associated implementation plan, Next Steps to Putting People at the Heart of Care. We recently announced a series of measures as part of that implementation. This includes the launch of the Care Workforce Pathway, a new national career structure for the adult social care workforce, an investment of over £20 million for apprenticeships, to support the training and supervising of hundreds of new social work and nurse apprentices, and a new digital leadership qualification, to help equip social care leaders and managers with the confidence and capability to drive the use of technology in the delivery of care. We plan to announce further phases of our reforms, particularly related to our reimbursement platform and funding for learning and development, in the summer.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
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 adequacy of levels of age-appropriate support offered by Integrated Care Boards for people with young onset dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to delivering high quality care and support for every person with dementia at every age, and central to this is the provision of personalised care.
The Dementia Well Pathway includes diagnosing well, living well, supporting well, and dying well, and highlights that services need to be integrated, commissioned, monitored, and aligned with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s standards for each component of the pathway. It makes it clear that the needs, wishes, and preferences of each individual, including those with young onset dementia, should be taken into account when planning and providing their care.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were admitted to hospital for palliative care in each of the last five years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The requested data is not available.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of patients who smoke have received very brief advice on smoking cessation in NHS hospitals.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment that all people admitted to hospital who smoke, will be offered National Health Service-funded tobacco treatment services. However, the requested information on the numbers of patients receiving Very Brief Advice is not captured or reported.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to provide (a) guidance and (b) resources to support Integrated Care Systems in developing a designated care pathway for people with young onset dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to delivering high quality care and support for every person with dementia at every age, and central to this is the provision of personalised care. The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England would expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines.
The Dementia Well Pathway includes diagnosing well, living well, supporting well, and dying well, and highlights that services need to be integrated, commissioned, monitored, and aligned with the NICE’s standards for each component of the pathway. It makes it clear that the needs, wishes, and preferences of each individual should be taken into account in planning and providing their care.
Guidance on dementia care in hospital is referenced in The Dementia Care Pathway, and signals that commissioners should continue to actively engage in local system leadership. An improvement agenda should be developed jointly with key partners, including healthcare providers, social care, local government, and the voluntary and independent sectors. Additionally, on 24 January 2024, the Government announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy covering six conditions, including dementia.
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, whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence plans to launch a public consultation to take forward the commitment in the 2024 Rare Disease Action Plan for England to review the criteria for its Highly Specialised Technologies programme for very rare diseases.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Department officials regularly discuss a range of issues with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including in relation to the criteria for routing topics to the highly specialised technologies programme. The aim of any change to the criteria would be to clarify the type of medicine that would be eligible for the programme, in line with the vision set out in the NICE’s published topic selection manual. The NICE will consult publicly on any proposed changes to the criteria.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
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 setting a timetable for the full implementation of the Women’s Health Strategy across all integrated care boards.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Women’s Health Strategy sets out our ambitions for improving the health and wellbeing of women and girls in England. It is a 10-year strategy, as many of the improvements we want to see require structural change. We have committed to updating Parliament annually on the progress of the Women’s Health Strategy. In January 2024, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care updated Parliament on our priorities for 2024.
To support local implementation of the strategy, we have established a Network of Women’s Health Champions, made up of senior leaders from every integrated care system. The network is working together to implement priority commitments in the strategy, including women’s health hubs.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that plans for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome in the Major Conditions Strategy include (a) musculoskeletal and (b) all other symptoms.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the development of the Major Conditions Strategy, we are considering how we improve outcomes for people living with multiple conditions, which is increasingly common in this country. Aligning work across several groups of conditions, including musculoskeletal conditions, for this strategy will allow us to focus on where there are similarities in approach, and ensure care is better centred around the patient, maximising existing resources both within patient pathways and in integrating between pathways.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
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 estimate of the number of bone density scans conducted in community diagnostic centres in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of bone density scans, also known as DEXA scans, conducted in community diagnostic centres, is publicly available in the NHS Diagnostics Waiting Times and Activity (DM01) dataset. This data has been published monthly since March 2023, and is available at the following link: