Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will take steps to tackle waiting lists for access to gender identity services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service is establishing pilot gender dysphoria clinics under a new delivery model for this service. Pilot clinics have already opened in London, Cheshire and Merseyside, Manchester and the East of England and a further clinic in Sussex is planned later this year. These clinics are due to begin an evaluation to establish the viability of the new clinical models. This will reduce waiting times for patients and ensure the availability of these services.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
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 childhood flu vaccination rates.
Answered by Maggie Throup
During the 2021/22 flu season, over 3.8 million school-aged children had been vaccinated by the end of January 2022. We have begun planning for the 2022/23 flu season to further increase uptake. We are working with regional commissioning teams, school-aged providers, schools and primary care providers, in addition to collaborating with COVID-19 vaccination teams to consider where those successes can be applied to the seasonal flu programme. In addition to the targeted work of locally commissioned services to meet the needs and challenges of their local populations, communications will be developed to reach all eligible groups.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional steps his Department is taking to support NHS dentistry provision, in addition to the £50 million of funding for dentistry announced on 25 January 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
During the pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement have set activity thresholds for dentists which secures protection of practice National Health Service income. Access to free personal protective equipment will continue until 31 March 2023 or until infection prevention and control guidance is revised or withdrawn. Where data has indicated practices can achieve more activity safely, thresholds have been gradually increased to help improve access for patients. The current threshold is set at 85%. NHS dental practices have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and care for vulnerable groups, including children followed by overdue appointments.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Hikvision CCTV or other surveillance software or equipment from Hikvision, is used on any property owned or administered by his Department.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Hikvision CCTV and equipment is used in the core Departmental estate.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
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 merits of including children considered clinically extremely vulnerable in the covid-19 vaccination programme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government keeps the evidence on vaccination, under careful review, including whether clinically vulnerable children and young people should be offered a COVID-19 vaccination. At this stage, no decisions on the routine vaccination of children and young people. Following the approval of a vaccine for use in those aged 12 to 15 years old, we will be carefully reviewing the relative risks and benefits alongside expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to make additional funding available to primary care services; and what plans he has to fund the building of additional GP practices.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The NHS Long Term Plan, supported by the Government, commits to a record level of additional annual investment in primary medical and community care of an extra £4.5 billion in real terms by 2023/24. Additionally, the Government and NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to at least an additional £1.5 billion cash for general practice from 2020 - 2024 to deliver the manifesto commitments. In response to additional pressures due to the pandemic, we have also made available an additional £270 million funding from November 2020 until September 2021 to ensure general practice can continue to support all patients.
Since 2016 we have invested £800 million in improving primary care estate and technology, on top of ‘business as usual’ infrastructure funding. Further funding for NHS infrastructure, including how it will be allocated, will be confirmed after the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which 10 GP surgery locations have the highest numbers of patients registered in (a) the East Midlands and (b) England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information is not held in the format requested.