Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department had allocated to the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a specific funding allocation for preparing the National Cancer Plan. Further funding for cancer services will be considered as part of the upcoming spending review.
The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer, including anyone with secondary and metastatic cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years. On 4 February 2025, we launched a Call for Evidence, in which the views of people across the country will inform our plan to improve cancer care. Those who wish to share their views can do so on the new online platform. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/shaping-the-national-cancer-plan
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
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 reduce waiting times for access to specialist speech and language therapy services in Knowsley constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is committed to improving timely access to Knowsley Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy. There are currently 115 children and young people awaiting their first appointment in Knowsley. 94% of these are within the 18-week waiting time standard, with the average wait time approximately eight weeks.
The trust continues to work with partners to reduce waiting times with children and young people being prioritised for follow up appointments based on clinical need, the level of clinical risk and we ensure they are waiting safely. The trust will also continue to work in partnership with partners and families to meet the speech, language and communication needs of children and young people in the most appropriate setting to their therapy needs and speech therapy goals.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of access to specialist speech and language therapy services for children in (a) Merseyside and (b) Knowsley constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly monitors waiting lists for community services, including speech and language therapy, and is committed to reducing long waits and improving timely access to community health services, including for speech and language therapy services for children. Community health services, including speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
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 care for people living with arthritis.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Services for those with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, including arthritis, are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). The Department expects MSK services to be fully incorporated into integrated care system planning and decision-making.
As announced in the Get Britain Working white paper, we are delivering the joint Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health and Social Care, and NHS England Getting It Right First-Time (GIRFT) MSK Community Delivery Programme. With a £3.5 million funding boost, the GIRFT teams will deploy their proven Further Faster model to work with ICB leaders to further reduce MSK community waiting times, including for those with arthritis, and improve data and metrics, and referral pathways to wider support services.
We will deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments per week during our first year in Government, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks. 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.
To support health and care professionals in the early diagnosis and management of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, and in the provision of services for people living with arthritis, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published expert guidance for rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, which are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng100
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng226
The Department funds research into MSK conditions, including arthritis, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Through that route, the Department spent approximately £26.3 million on MSK research in 2023/24 and £79.2 million since 2019/20. In particular, the Leeds Biomedical Research Centre aims to improve treatment for osteoarthritis. The NIHR, in collaboration with Versus Arthritis, also funds a dedicated UK Musculoskeletal Translational Research Collaboration, aligning investment in MSK translational research and creating a United Kingdom-wide ambition and focus to drive cutting edge research and improve outcomes for patients.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the level of health inequalities in Knowsley constituency.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The United Kingdom faces significant health inequalities, with life expectancy varying widely across and within communities. The Government is committed to building a fairer Britain by tackling the structural inequalities that contribute to poor health, particularly for disadvantaged groups.
Existing initiatives to reduce inequalities in relation to health services in England include NHS England’s ‘Core 20 Plus 5’, which focuses on improving the five clinical areas at most need of accelerated improvement in the poorest 20 percent of the population, along with other underserved population groups identified at a local level, including groups that share protected characteristics, and socially excluded groups such as people experiencing homelessness.
The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities’ North West Regional Team provides system leadership for population health and reducing health inequalities across the North West. Across Cheshire and Merseyside, partners are working together as part of the All Together Fairer collaborative to improve health equity and the social determinants of health through measurable actions for each place to create a fairer, more equitable society.
Knowsley is one of 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation receiving funding to improve outcomes for families with babies as part of the approximately £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
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 health inequalities in Knowsley constituency.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The United Kingdom faces significant health inequalities, with life expectancy varying widely across and within communities. The Government is committed to building a fairer Britain by tackling the structural inequalities that contribute to poor health, particularly for disadvantaged groups.
Existing initiatives to reduce inequalities in relation to health services in England include NHS England’s ‘Core 20 Plus 5’, which focuses on improving the five clinical areas at most need of accelerated improvement in the poorest 20 percent of the population, along with other underserved population groups identified at a local level, including groups that share protected characteristics, and socially excluded groups such as people experiencing homelessness.
The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities’ North West Regional Team provides system leadership for population health and reducing health inequalities across the North West. Across Cheshire and Merseyside, partners are working together as part of the All Together Fairer collaborative to improve health equity and the social determinants of health through measurable actions for each place to create a fairer, more equitable society.
Knowsley is one of 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation receiving funding to improve outcomes for families with babies as part of the approximately £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people living with Alzheimer's in Knowsley constituency; and what plans his Department has to improve dementia (a) diagnosis and (b) care for those people.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
According to data from the Alzheimer’s Society, Knowsley’s prevalence of people living with dementia currently stands at 2,200, with a diagnosis rate of approximately 64%. There are thought to be 982,000 living with dementia in the United Kingdom.
Those suspected of living with dementia are referred into the Later Life and Memory Service (LLAMS) within Knowsley, and assessments are completed within 10 days. A recent national audit shown that Knowsley’s overall wait time from assessment to diagnosis is 110 days, compared to the national average of 151 days. Following diagnosis, the LLAMS will deliver continued care, treatment, and support in line with guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. The service provides a named nurse, non-pharmaceutical therapies, and medication options.
There is a Dementia Care Navigator within Knowsley, which means any person living with a diagnosis of dementia is never discharged from a memory service. This offers a streamlined and accessible service without the need for new general practice referrals.
The Knowsley LLAMS began a pilot scheme, funded by NHS England, to improve diagnosis rates in Knowsley care homes, using the Diadem tool. They liaised with care homes to identify any residents who may be living in care homes without a formal dementia diagnosis, and were able to diagnose a further 40 residents with unspecified dementia, or refer them back to services for the full memory pathway.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
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 the number of dental practices that accept new NHS patients in Knowsley constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and to recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of National Health Service dentists. NHS dentists are required to update their NHS.UK website profiles at least every 90 days, to ensure patients have up-to-date information on where they can access care.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Knowsley constituency, this is the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) children and (b) adults are registered with an NHS dentist in Knowsley constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. Some dental practices may operate local waiting list arrangements.
NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK website profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist/
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of dentistry provision in Knowsley constituency for (a) children and (b) adults.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Dental Statistics - England 2023-24, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
The data for the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, which includes the Knowsley constituency, shows that 46% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months, compared to 40% in England, and that 62% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months, compared to 56% in England.
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to 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.