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Written Question
Long Covid: Research
Tuesday 5th December 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to increase funding for biomedical research on long covid.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

For long COVID, research and scientific evidence is pivotal in shaping our understanding of causes and effects for individuals and the population. Over £50 million has already been invested in long COVID research projects to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care.

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including long COVID. The Medical Research Council also funds biomedical research into long COVID. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.


Written Question
General Practitioners
Friday 10th November 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his Department's policy that a patient's GP practice be informed if that patient visits different hospitals in the same NHS trust with similar illnesses or injuries.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

A patient’s general practice (GP) would usually be informed when they attended hospital, either via a discharge letter, or via a notification on an electronic patient record system. This is dependent on the National Health Service trust knowing the patient’s registered GP. A patient may object to the sharing of their information with their GP when visiting a trust, for example when attending accident and emergency, and the trust will need to follow data protection legislation and guidance to determine whether it is in its best interests to still share this with the patient’s GP.


Written Question
Defibrillators: Public Places
Monday 16th October 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2023 to Question 197773 on Defibrillators: Public Places, if he will provide breakdown of those defibrillators registered with the Circuit in England by (a) community centres, (b) public parks, (c) sports centres, (d) work spaces, (e) schools and (f) universities.

Answered by Will Quince

The Circuit is operated independently by the British Heart Foundation, in partnership with the Resuscitation Council UK, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and the National Health Service. The Department does not have access to the information held on the Circuit and it is therefore not possible to provide information as requested.


Written Question
Healthy Start Scheme
Tuesday 19th September 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of families were (a) eligible for and (b) claimed Healthy Start Scheme vouchers by 12 September 2023.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

The NHS Business Services Authority operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly uptake figures for the Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/

The latest uptake figures were published on 31 August 2023. In August 2023, uptake for the NHS Healthy Start scheme was 66.0%, with 557,460 eligible beneficiaries.


Written Question
Defibrillators: Public Places
Monday 11th September 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many defibrillators have been installed in public spaces in England as of August 2023.

Answered by Will Quince

The British Heart Foundation, in partnership with the Resuscitation Council UK, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and the National Health Service, has set up The Circuit, which is a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can identify the nearest defibrillator at the time of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

The Circuit is live in all ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As of August 2023, there were 54,976 defibrillators registered with the Circuit in England.


Written Question
Memory Clinics: Waiting Lists
Friday 8th September 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a person to have an initial appointment at a memory clinic in each region.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information requested is not held centrally.


Written Question
Health Services: Wirral South
Monday 4th September 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193607 on Health Services: Wirral South, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for treatment on the Wirral.

Answered by Will Quince

The Government has committed more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity across England including the Wirral. This is supported further by £5.9 billion investment in capital for new beds, equipment, and technology.

In July 2022 we met our target to virtually eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures, and significantly reduced the number of patients waiting 18 months or more by April 2023 by over 91% from the peak in September 2021. We have now moved our focus to cutting waits of 65 weeks or more to as near zero as possible by March 2024; this includes patients waiting for treatment in the Wirral. Capacity is being sought across the National Health Service and the independent sector locally, regionally and across the country to support efforts in hitting this target.

From October 2023, all patients waiting over 40 weeks where a decision to treat a patient has been made but the patient does not have a date for their treatment will be able to initiate a request to transfer to another provider and receive treatment more quickly via the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Monday 4th September 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193134 on Mental Health Services: Children and Young People, when she plans that the national access and waiting times standards for these services in England will be (a) defined and (b) set.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

NHS England plans to publish data on community mental health longest waits in autumn 2023 using their proxy measure of how long to receive one or more contacts for children and young people, or two or more contacts for adults. NHS England plans to publish the full community mental health waiting times proposed in spring 2024. This will start to move away from only measuring contacts and will broaden focus on meaningful activities and improved outcomes.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Further Education and Schools
Monday 4th September 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193133 on Mental Health Services: Further Education and Schools, what his Department's definition is of a mental health team in (a) schools and (b) colleges.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Mental Health Support Teams have three core functions: to deliver evidence-based interventions for mild-to-moderate mental health issues; support the senior mental health lead (where established) in each school or college to introduce or develop whole school or college approach; and give timely advice to school and college staff and liaise with external specialist service to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.


Written Question
Health Services: Wirral South
Tuesday 18th July 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2023 to Question 192573 on Health Services: Waiting Lists, what the average waiting list time for specialist clinical (a) care and (b) surgery was in (i) February, (ii) April and (iii) June 2023 for people in Wirral South constituency.

Answered by Will Quince

As detailed in the answer to Question 192573, this data is not available in the format requested for a breakdown between specialist clinical care and surgery. The average waiting time nationally for referral to treatment for elective care was 14.5 weeks in February 2023 and 13.8 weeks in April 2023. Official NHS England figures for this statistic in June 2023 are not yet available, however the most recent published statistic for May 2023 was 14.1 weeks on average. These figures relate to the average time a patient is still waiting for their treatment to begin, at the end of the given month.

Average waiting times are not available per constituency. However, as of 28 May, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had 41,375 people waiting for treatment, with over 58% waiting under 18 weeks.