Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 potential benefits of extending the funding for women's health hubs beyond March 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
At the Autumn Budget, the Government announced a £22.6 billion increase in day-to-day health spending and a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget over this year and the next. Building a National Health Service fit for the future is one of the five missions of the Government.
Women’s health hubs aim to improve access to and experiences of care, improve health outcomes for women, and reduce health inequalities. Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health care needs of their local population, which includes women's health hubs.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 effectiveness of women’s health hubs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has commissioned research and undertaken analysis to assess the effectiveness of women’s health hubs.
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In 2023, a rapid mixed methods evaluation was undertaken by the NIHR’s Birmingham RAND and Cambridge Evaluation Rapid Evaluation Centre to explore the current state and experiences of delivering and using women’s health hubs. It identified 17 women’s health hubs in England which were established between 2001 and 2022. The final report was published in September 2024, and is available at the following link:
https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/JYFT5036#/abstract
The Department has published a cost benefit analysis, which estimated that for every £1 spent on implementing a primary care network-sized hub, there are estimated to be £5 of benefits. The cost benefit analysis is available at the following link:
The Department and NHS England are also committed to learning from the ongoing two-year women’s health hubs pilot programme, in 2023/24 and 2024/25. For example, the NIHR has commissioned two projects through the Policy Research Unit in Reproductive Health and the Policy Innovation Unit, which will explore mechanisms for commissioning women’s reproductive health services in England and what influences choice of, access to, and satisfaction with these services, including women’s health hubs.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 reduce waiting lists for treatment for chronic migraines.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government does recognise that patients, including those with migraines, have been let down for too long whilst they wait for the care they need. The Government is committed to putting patients first. This means making sure that patients are seen on time, and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.
We have made a commitment that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment within our first term. This includes those waiting for treatment for migraines. As a first step to achieving this, we will deliver an additional 2 million operations, scans, and appointments across all specialities during our first year in Government, which is equivalent to 40,000 per week. The Government announced £1.5 billion of new capital investment in the Autumn Budget, including investment for new diagnostic scanners and surgical hubs. This investment in scanners will build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures and 1.25 million diagnostic tests as they come online.
There are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with migraines in England, including the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Programme for Neurology, the RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit, and the Neurology Transformation Programme (NTP).
The GIRFT National Specialty Report made recommendations designed to improve services nationally and to support the National Health Service to deliver care more equitably across the country. It makes several recommendations in relation to improving recognition and diagnosis of migraines by general practitioners. Additionally, the RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit sets out key priorities for improving care for patients with migraines, which includes correct identification and diagnosis of headache disorders.
The NTP has developed a model of integrated care for neurology services to support integrated care boards to deliver the right service, at the right time, for all neurology patients, including providing care closer to home. The NTP has developed an online, interactive adult neurology dashboard to support systems to understand their local neurology landscape and benchmark against other integrated care boards in England. It sets out key metrics and visualisations for neurology services locally, providing information about the scope and quality of local neurology services using existing whole population, whole pathway data.
The Royal College of General Practitioners has developed two e-learning modules about migraines and cluster headaches, which the aim to raise awareness amongst primary care clinicians about the different types of migraines and their associated symptoms, and how to differentiate.
Over the last four years, a new class of drugs, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors, have been made available on the NHS for the prevention and treatment of episodic and chronic migraines. On 15 May 2024, Atogepant became the latest CGRP inhibitor for which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance. The NICE recommended Atogepant for use as a preventive medication for the treatment of migraines on the NHS in England.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 fund research into new treatments for chronic migraines to (a) increase quality of life and (b) reduce the number of patients experiencing side effects.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The National Institute for Health and Care Research has funded a number of research projects on the prevention and treatment of chronic and episodic migraines. The relevant awards are named the Co-production and testing of an online resource to support the diagnosis and self-management of migraine, with an award number of NIHR202614, and the What is the comparative clinical and cost- effectiveness of pharmacological treatments for adults with chronic migraine?, with an award number of NIHR132803. Further information is available at the following links:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR202614
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR132803
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of (a) pregnant women and (b) new mothers receiving free dental treatment on the NHS (i) nationally and (ii) by region.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pregnant women and new mothers are entitled to free National Health Service dental care. The following table shows the total number of Courses of Treatment delivered nationally to new mothers and pregnant women over the last five years:
Patient type | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Expectant mother | 304,536 | 104,659 | 204,229 | 215,528 | 211,935 |
Mother of child born in the year before treatment started | 471,033 | 144,737 | 289,624 | 330,000 | 321,718 |
Source: Data is published by the NHS Business Services Authority, and is available at the following link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
We do not hold data for each region.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 provision of health services for women.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Women’s health is a priority for this government. We are considering how to take forward the Women’s Health Strategy and aligning our work on women’s health with the forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan.Work continues to improve health outcomes for women, including the £25 million women’s health hubs pilot, new NICE guidance on endometriosis and menopause and extending the Baby Loss Certificate service.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 availability of NHS dentistry for (a) pregnant women and (b) new mothers; and what steps he is taking to increase the availability of that treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care, including dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Norwich North constituency, this is the NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB.
Pregnant women and new mothers are entitled to free NHS dental care. The following table show the total number of Courses of Treatment delivered nationally to new mothers and pregnant women over the last five years:
Patient type | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Expectant mother | 304,536 | 104,659 | 204,229 | 215,528 | 211,935 |
Mother of child born in the year before treatment started | 471,033 | 144,737 | 289,624 | 330,000 | 321,718 |
Source: data is published by the NHS Business Services Authority, and can be found at the following link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
We do not hold data for each region.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 impact of challenges accessing dental care on pregnant women.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care, including dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Norwich North constituency, this is the NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB.
Pregnant women and new mothers are entitled to free NHS dental care. The following table show the total number of Courses of Treatment delivered nationally to new mothers and pregnant women over the last five years:
Patient type | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Expectant mother | 304,536 | 104,659 | 204,229 | 215,528 | 211,935 |
Mother of child born in the year before treatment started | 471,033 | 144,737 | 289,624 | 330,000 | 321,718 |
Source: data is published by the NHS Business Services Authority, and can be found at the following link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
We do not hold data for each region.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
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 ensure that people with Alzheimer’s disease in the East of England receive (a) an early diagnosis and (b) swift treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving dementia care is one of four workstreams delivering NHS England’s Ageing Well Strategy. The dementia workstream is looking at improving early diagnosis and early access to care and support for patients, families, and carers, as well as taking preventative action through public health messaging, promoting healthy lifestyle choices, and expanding NHS Health Checks. The workstream is also looking at improving local services and delivering an integrated approach to care across statutory, voluntary, community, and social enterprises, as well as other services, and providing dementia training for the workforce.
A Norfolk and Suffolk system-wide Dementia Round Table event was held in September 2024 to identify what changes need to be made to the pathway in order to meet the needs of a complex patient group in a rural geography. The findings of this event have since evolved into a set of priorities focussed on the review of the clinical model and commissioning arrangements.
Norfolk and Waveney’s statutory partners have signed-up to a Dementia Charter and have agreed to a set of best practice principles and way of working which will mean that people using dementia services will have a smooth transition between services and organisations.
In the last four months, community diagnostic centres have opened at the James Paget Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which will help to make it easier and speed-up the time it takes for people to get diagnosis scans. A further diagnostic centre will be opening at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital early next year.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are affected by long covid in (a) Norfolk, (b) the East of England and (c) England.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The most recent data from the Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study, a joint study carried out by the Office for National Statistics and the UK Health Security Agency, shows that, for the period of 6 February 2024 to 7 March 2024, an estimated 1.8 million people, or 3.3% of the population, in private households in England reported experiencing long COVID symptoms more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection.
For the same period, approximately 200,000 people, or 3.3% of the population, in private households in the East of England reported experiencing long COVID symptoms more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection.