Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help secure the supply of Creon 25000 for patients ordinarily prescribed that pharmaceutical.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department was made aware of a short-term supply issue with Creon 25000 gastro-resistant capsules, in September and November 2023. The supplier has since confirmed that it is back in stock, and we are not aware of any further issues with supply of Creon.
The Department has well-established processes for managing and mitigating medicine supply issues, which involve working with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments, and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
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 ensure that all children can (a) be registered with an NHS dentist and (b) receive regular check-ups at a dental practice.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many of these practices do tend to see patients regularly. NHS dental practices are contracted to deliver activity and to deliver a course of treatment to an individual irrelevant of where they live, rather than to provide ongoing regular care. This means that there is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend, allowing patients the choice of where they would like to receive a course of treatment.
The Department announced a package of improvements to the NHS dental system in July 2022 and detailed in ‘Our plan for patients’. These changes make it a legal requirement for dentists to update their information on the NHS website to improve information available to patients. The regulations came into effect in November 2022.
The latest NHS Dental Statistics for England show that 6.4 million children were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months up to 30 June 2023, an increase of 800,000 or 14% when compared to the previous year.
Dental practices are also being supported to adhere more closely to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on recall intervals which indicate that a healthy adult with good oral health need only see a dentist every two years and a child every year.
In circumstances where parents are unable to access an urgent dental appointment for their child directly through a NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111 for assistance.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
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 dental treatment provided to patients requiring treatment within a (a) care home and (b) similar care setting.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment in several settings including care homes. The frequency of dental checks will be determined by dentists on an individual basis.
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dental services, including domiciliary care. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England transferred to integrated care boards (ICBs) in April 2023. ICBs are responsible for meeting the needs of their local population by working with patient groups. Domiciliary care may be delivered by any dentist holding a contract to deliver general dental services or it may be specifically commissioned locally as an additional service. NHS England is working very closely with stakeholders, inclusive of the Care Quality Commission and Healthwatch England, to ensure that patients receive the appropriate care within the appropriate setting.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
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 and proportion of individuals contacting the NHS 111 helpline (a) for medical advice on dental health and (b) to request dental treatment.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England publishes the Integrated Urgent Care Aggregate Data Collection monthly which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/iucadc-new-from-april-2021/
This includes data on the number of callers to NHS 111 who were recommended to contact or speak to a dental practitioner. In June 2023, the latest data available, 85,593 callers to 111, 6.6% of all callers, were recommended to contact or speak to a dental practitioner.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
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 the provision of dental services in Great Yarmouth constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No specific assessment has been made. However, NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Great Yarmouth. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Great Yarmouth.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.