Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 waiting times for joint replacement surgery in Gosport constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission and a top priority for the Government, including waits for joint replacement surgery. We have committed to achieving the NHS Constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by the end of this Parliament. As a first step, we will deliver an additional 2 million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, which is the equivalent to 40,000 per week.
We are also supporting dedicated and protected surgical hubs to help reduce elective surgery wait times, including for joint replacement, by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries, as recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, transforming the way the National Health Service provides elective care.
As of November 2024, there are currently 110 operational surgical hubs across England. There are currently two operational surgical hubs within the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Integrated Care System offering trauma and orthopaedics services, including joint replacement, those being the Lymington Hospital Elective Hub, and the Winchester Country Hospital Elective Hub. Patients in the Gosport constituency can be referred to the two surgical hubs for trauma and orthopaedics services.
The Department and NHS England will set out details on the allocation of further funding at the earliest opportunity, including how many new surgical hubs will be established.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is providing financial resources to integrated care boards to allow them to allocate resources effectively.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department provides funding to NHS England, which in turn allocates a large part of its funding to the integrated care boards. Planned spend by integrated care boards is currently £141 billion for the financial year 2024/25, with boards responsible for the strategic commissioning of services to meet the needs of their local populations.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to develop an acquired brain injury strategy.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government wants a society where every person, including those with a long-term condition such as an acquired brain injury (ABI), receives high-quality, compassionate continuity of care, with their families and carers supported.
We will change the National Health Service so that it becomes not just a sickness service, but one able to prevent ill health in the first place. This will help us be better prepared for the change in the nature of disease and allow our services to focus more on the management of chronic, long-term conditions, like ABIs, including rehabilitation where appropriate.
A decision on the next steps on ABIs at the national level will be taken in the coming months. Meanwhile, we have committed to develop a 10-year plan to deliver an NHS fit for the future. We will be carefully considering input from the public, patients, health staff, and our stakeholders as we develop the plan over the coming months. The engagement process has been launched and I would encourage my fellow Parliamentarians to engage with that process, to allow us to fully understand what is not working as well as it should and what the potential solutions are, including on ABI. More information about how they can input into the plan is available at the following link:
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services such as rehabilitation and reablement services, and ensuring that there is appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their population. The core ICB allocations formula is an estimate of the relative need for healthcare resources in each ICB, and is recommended by an independent committee. The formula includes a range of adjustments that account for the fact that the costs of providing health care may vary between rural and urban areas.
Often, rehabilitation and reablement services don’t provide services exclusively for patients with brain injuries, but also provide rehabilitation for patients with other conditions, such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, it is difficult to quantify the total about of funding that is spent on brain injury reablement services specifically.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 availability of fracture liaison services in Gosport constituency.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the current postcode lottery for access to quality Fracture Liaison Services in constituencies across the country. That is why the Government is committed to their expansion, and the Department is working closely with NHS England on how to ensure better quality and access, including ways to best support local systems.
Fracture Liaison Services are commissioned by integrated care boards who are best placed to make decisions according to local need. The Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme, which includes a dedicated Fracture Liaison Service database, is a national clinical audit of fracture prevention care, delivered by the Royal College of Physicians. This includes reporting on individual Fracture Liaison Services, and supports local and national service improvement.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 in Gosport constituency.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Services for those with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, including arthritis, are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB, which covers the Gosport constituency. The Department expects MSK services and fragility fracture to be fully incorporated into local integrated care system planning and decision-making.
At a national level, NHS England is working to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with MSK conditions such as arthritis, and increase support for patients with arthritis through its Getting It Right First Time rheumatology programme. In January 2023, NHS England also published an improvement framework to reduce community MSK waits while delivering the best outcomes and experience. This supports integrated care systems to improve timely access to commissioned MSK triage and therapy services.
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, with further information 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 the NIHR, the Department spent approximately £26.3 million on MSK research in 2023/24, and £79.2 million since 2019/20. Six NIHR Biomedical Research Centres have MSK conditions as a research theme. 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: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 15 October 2024 to Question 7738 on General Practitioners: Gosport, what steps he plans to take to introduce Neighbourhood Health Centres in Gosport constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have committed to trialling Neighbourhood Health Centres to bring together a range of services, ensuring healthcare is closer to home and patients receive the care they deserve. This is part of our broader ambition to move towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered in local communities to spot problems earlier.
I thank my Rt. Hon. friend for their suggestion of Gosport as a trial location. We are working with officials to explore options for how best to trial Neighbourhood Health Centres.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of implementing the recommendations of the National Centre for Creative Health's review entitled Creative Health Review, published on 6 December 2023.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of delays to fitness to practice investigations on dentists' mental health.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made by the Department. The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator for dentists and dental care professionals in the United Kingdom. The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) is responsible for overseeing the work of the healthcare professional regulators. The PSA’s latest report on the GDC’s performance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 access to GP services in Gosport constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that patients across the country, including in the Gosport constituency, are finding it harder than ever to see a general practitioner (GP), and we are committed to fixing the crisis in GPs. Our plan to restore GPs will require both investment and reform. We will increase the proportion of funding for GPs and are already investing £82 million to recruit 1,000 newly qualified GPs. This will increase the number of appointments delivered in GPs, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and take pressure off those currently working in the system.
Additionally, we will introduce Neighbourhood Health Centres to bring together vital health and care services, ensuring healthcare is closer to home and patients receive the care they deserve. The Government will also bring back the family doctor by incentivising GPs to see the same patient.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 help reduce obesity rates amongst (a) adults and (b) children in Gosport constituency.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that prevention will always be better, and cheaper, than a cure. The prevention of ill health is a clear mission for the Government and the cornerstone of this is supporting children to live healthier lives. We face a childhood obesity crisis, and the Government will take action to tackle it head on, easing the strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever. Shifting the focus from treatment to prevention is one of the three shifts for the Government’s mission for an NHS that is fit for the future.
We will bring forward the necessary secondary legislation to ban junk food advertising to children and stop the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16-year-olds. The Government is also committed to stop the targeting of school children by fast food outlets by empowering councils to block the development of new fast-food shops outside schools.
Officials in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ regional teams work closely with local partners, including local authorities and the NHS, to support them with local initiatives to promote a healthy lifestyle and tackle obesity.