Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on tackling the shortage of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy drugs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is continuing to engage with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to boost production to mitigate the supply issue. Increased volumes of PERT are expected for 2025, and specialist importers have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the gap in the market. In December, the Department issued further management advice to healthcare professionals. This directs clinicians to unlicensed imports when licensed stock is unavailable, and includes actions for integrated care boards to ensure local mitigation plans are implemented. The Department, in collaboration with NHS England, has created a public facing page to include the latest updates on PERT availability and easily accessible prescribing advice.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 end the difference between the treatment of military and civil compensation payments in means tests for disabled facilities grants.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are giving older and disabled people more independence in their own homes through an immediate in-year uplift to the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) of £86 million in 2024/25. This increase will provide approximately 7,800 additional home adaptations. This is on top of the £625 million paid to local authorities in May 2024. The Government also announced an £86 million additional investment in the DFG for the 2025/26 financial year at the Budget, bringing total funding for 2025/26 to £711 million. To ensure the DFG is as effective as possible, we will continue to keep different aspects of the grant, including the means test, under consideration.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 improve provision of post-natal mental health care in Stoke-on-Trent.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Stoke-on-Trent is one of 75 local authorities that is receiving funding to provide bespoke perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme.
However, more is needed. Access to these services varies across the country and too many people with mental health issues, including mothers in the 24 months postpartum, are not getting the support or care they need. NHS England is working to ensure that services are accessible to all women who need them.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 increase the number of trainee GPs who undertake specialist training in mental health.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The standard of medical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC), which is an independent statutory body. The GMC has the general function of promoting high standards of education and co-ordinating all stages of education to ensure that medical students and newly qualified doctors are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for professional practice.
The curriculum for general practitioner (GP) specialty training is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners and must meet the standards set by the GMC and be formally approved by them. Whilst the curriculum may not necessarily highlight a specific condition, it instead emphasises the skills and approaches a GP must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients. This is assessed by the MRCGP Examination.
Health Education England, now part of NHS England, published a reform of GP Specialty Training, and this includes enhancing mental health training for all.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 increase recruitment of (a) healthcare and (b) dentistry professionals in rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the National Health Service. A central part of the plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.
In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to ensure the NHS has the right people across healthcare and dentistry, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
To tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care, the Government has launched a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.
Integrated care boards have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to improve mental health provision for young people in Stoke-on-Trent South constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many young people are not receiving the mental health care they need, including in Stoke-on-Trent South constituency, and we know that waits for mental health services are too long. As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across children and adult mental health services in England to reduce delays and provide faster treatment. We will also provide access to a specialist mental health professional in every school and roll out Young Futures Hubs in every community.
There are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England offering early easy access mental health interventions to thousands of children and young people aged between 11 and 25 years old including those from low-income families.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 improve outcomes for patients with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in Stoke-on-Trent.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working with NHS England to deliver interventions to improve outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer across England, including Stoke-on-Trent.
As the first step to ensure faster diagnosis and treatment, we will deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week.
Early diagnosis is imperative to improving outcomes for all types of cancer, especially pancreatic cancer due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. NHS England is providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk to identify lesions before they develop into cancer. NHS England is additionally creating pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms and is increasing direct access for general practitioners to diagnostic tests.
NHS England is also funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer, aiming to provide regular and timely evidence to cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, to increase the consistency of access to treatments and to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 fund improved provisions for addiction support services in Stoke-on-Trent South.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department provides additional funding to support drug and alcohol services. In 2024/25 a total of £4,670,913 was allocated to Stoke-on-Trent. This included £2,906,020 for the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery grant, £939,906 for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant, £589,429 for the Housing Support Grant, £165,719 for the Individual Placement and Support Grant (employment support), and £69,839 for the Inpatient Detoxification Grant. This funding is provided at a local authority level and information on funding at a constituency level is not available. Future targeted funding for drug and alcohol treatment services beyond 2025 will be announced very shortly.
The Government is providing £70 million of additional funding for local authority-led Stop Smoking Services in England in 2024/25, building on existing funding made available via the Public Health Grant. The Government will also provide a further £70 million funding for Stop Smoking Services in 2025/26. As part of this additional funding Stoke-on-Trent has been allocated £381,688 for Stop Smoking Services in 2025/26.
The Department remains focused on ensuring those experiencing gambling-related harm can access the right care at the right time. The introduction of a new statutory levy on gambling operators will provide increased, independent funding to support the improvement and expansion of treatment and support services, with NHS England acting as the main treatment commissioner.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 (a) provide support for and (b) increase capacity of drug and alcohol recovery services in Stoke-on-Trent.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that anyone with a drug or alcohol problem can access the help and support they need, and we recognise the need for evidenced-based, high-quality treatment. In addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department provides additional funding to support drug and alcohol services. In 2024/25, a total of £4,670,913 was allocated to Stoke-on-Trent. This included £2,906,020 for the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant, £939,906 for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant, £589,429 for the Housing Support Grant, £165,719 for the Individual Placement and Support Grant (employment support), and £69,839 for the Inpatient Detoxification Grant. Future targeted funding for drug and alcohol treatment services beyond 2025 will be announced very shortly.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) provides monitoring, data, guidance, and targeted support to help local authorities, such as Stoke-on-Trent, to support improvement of drug and alcohol treatment. For Stoke-on-Trent, this support includes regular meetings with the Director of Public Health, commissioners, and providers to discuss treatment and recovery delivery, site visits by OHID, and engagement in improvement support programmes, for example introducing innovation into treatment services to improve access and retention for people who use opiates.
Additionally, OHID has published guidance for local authorities to support them in commissioning effective alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services in their areas, with more information available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commissioning-quality-standard-alcohol-and-drug-services
The Department continues to work with all local areas to address unmet need and drug misuse deaths and to drive improvements in continuity of care. This includes the Unmet Need Toolkit which can be used by local areas to assess gaps in referral pathways. The toolkit also contains guidance on good practice to reduce the level of unmet need and target priority or underserved groups.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 ambulance waiting times in Stoke-on-Trent South constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the pressures on the National Health Service during the winter period and the impact this is having on ambulance response times, including in Stoke-on-Trent.
We are committed to supporting the National Health Service to improve performance and achieve the standards set out in the NHS Constitution but must be clear that there are no quick fixes.
However, we are determined to turn things around through investment and reform. The Chancellor announced £25.6 billion of additional healthcare funding over the next two years, and we will set out a 10-Year Health Plan to radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.