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Written Question
NHS: Older Workers
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the (a) physical and (b) mental ability of NHS staff to work beyond the state pension age.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

No recent assessment has been made. National Health Service staff are not expected to work beyond state pension age, though some choose to do so. The NHS Pension Scheme is generous, and provides good pensions for retirement. The scheme offers a partial retirement option, which allows staff to draw down part of their pension and continue working in a more flexible way.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commits to going beyond statutory requirements in supporting and promoting flexible working opportunities. NHS England have produced guidance for employers on supporting their older workforce, together with a wide-ranging package of support for NHS staff. This includes tools and resources to support line managers to hold meaningful conversations with staff to discuss their well-being, and emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support.


Written Question
Junior Doctors: Pay
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will increase the pay of junior doctors; and when she next plans to meet their representatives to discuss pay.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Junior Doctors have already received a pay uplift of up to 10.3% for 2023-2024.

When industrial action is called, the Government’s priority is supporting the National Health Service to prepare for that action and keep patients safe. On that basis, my right hon. Friend will not meet with the British Medical Association Junior Doctors Committee when strike action has been called.


Written Question
Paramedical Staff: Sexual Offences
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

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 tackle sexual abuse of female paramedics.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England commissioned a review into the ambulance sector culture and has welcomed the recommendations of the recent independent review, which highlights the need to target bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment, and enable the freedom to speak up.

NHS England are setting up a Delivery Board alongside an implementation plan to deliver the recommendations from the Ambulance Sector Culture report. This will include actions related to stopping misogyny and improving sexual safety in the ambulance service by the Office of the Chief Allied Health Professions at NHS England and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives.

Last year, NHS England launched the first-ever sexual safety charter in collaboration with healthcare systems, to provide staff with clear reporting mechanisms, training, and support, ensuring that a zero-tolerance approach to tackle sexual misconduct is taken.

The 2023 NHS Staff Survey included a new question specifically around unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature to enable National Health Service organisations to understand the prevalence of misconduct in their workplace, which will inform further action to protect and support staff across the NHS. The results of the 2023 NHS Staff Survey will be published on 7 March 2024.


Written Question
Dental Services
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Oral Statement of 7 February 2024 on NHS Dentistry: Recovery and Reform, Official Report, columns 251-253, whether she has made an estimate of the impact of the announcement to offer additional payments for check-ups and new patients on the number of new dental surgeries that will be established in each of the next five years.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately two and a half million additional appointments, or more than one and a half million additional courses of dental treatment. As part of the plan, we will launch a new Golden Hello scheme for dentists who want to move to areas which persistently struggle to attract dentists into National Health Service work. The scheme will provide an extra two and a half million appointments, with 20,000 to be offered per dentist, for up to 240 dentists over three years.

We recognise that some commissioners will also be looking to commission new dentistry capacity to support under-served areas. We will support integrated care boards to ensure they understand how commissioning teams can encourage development of their local provider market, and to identify what further support they may need to develop new capacity, where they would otherwise be dependent on existing contractors and facilities to deliver improvements in access.


Written Question
Naloxone
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of administering naloxone when (a) reversing an overdose and (b) no opioids are present in the system.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government considers naloxone to be effective in reducing opioid overdose-related deaths and is working to widen access to, and increase the uptake of, this life saving drug. The Naloxone consultation published on 24 January 2024 seeks views on proposals to expand access to take-home naloxone supplies, with more information available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposals-to-expand-access-to-take-home-naloxone-supplies

Naloxone has a very good safety profile. Using medicines is never without risk but the government’s assessment and the clinical consensus is that the benefits of naloxone far outweigh the risks. Naloxone remains effective when used to reverse the effects of an overdose caused by synthetic opioids.

Naloxone's safety means it is highly unlikely to harm someone if it is administered to them and they are not overdosing on an opioid.


Written Question
Fentanyl and Nitazenes: Death
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data her Department holds on the number of deaths as a result of (a) nitazenes and (b) fentanyl poisonings in 2023.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Data on drug-related deaths registered in England and Wales are collected and reported on annually by the Office for National Statistics with the latest published data covering deaths registered in 2022. However, for surveillance purposes, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has been tracking deaths reported to it via its networks that have been confirmed to involve nitazenes or fentanyls in England since 1 June 2023. OHID has logged 64 deaths involving nitazenes and no deaths involving fentanyls between June and December 2023.


Written Question
Blood: Donors
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of NHS blood donation appointments that have been cancelled due to staff shortages in each of the last 12 months.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following table shows the number appointments booked, the number of appointments cancelled due to staff shortages, and those cancellations as a percentage of all appointments, from January 2023 to December 2023:

January

February

March

April

May

June

Booked Appointments

176,421

163,349

186,571

162,949

179,578

181,374

Cancelled due to Staff Shortage

3,538

5,060

7,583

3,454

3,579

6,674

Staff Shortage Related Cancellations as % of Booked Appointments

2.01

3.09

4.06

2.12

1.99

3.68

July

August

September

October

November

December

Booked Appointments

177,043

181,102

166,774

172,679

172,879

158,467

Cancelled due to Staff Shortage

6,078

5,546

6,762

7,059

3,980

4,608

Staff Shortage Related Cancellations as % of Booked Appointments

3.43

3.06

4.05

4.09

2.30

2.91

Source: NHS Blood and Transplant, January 2024.

Note: Cancellation numbers are taken from routine cancellation reporting, cancellation reasons are taken from cancellation request form and proportions have been applied to cancellation numbers


Written Question
Chlamydia: Young People
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of focussing opportunistic chlamydia screening only on young women on diagnosis levels since 2021.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The trend in chlamydia diagnoses is affected by multiple factors. The UK Health Security Agency routinely monitors chlamydia testing and diagnoses through sexually transmitted infection surveillance datasets. In 2022, there were 68,882 chlamydia diagnoses among females aged between 15 and 24 years old, a 22% increase compared to the 2021 figure of 56,562. There were 37,404 diagnoses in males aged between 15 and 24 years old in 2022, a 28% increase compared to the 2021 figure of 29,317.


Written Question
Chlamydia: Screening
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much has been spent on the national chlamydia screening programme in each year since 2015.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning chlamydia screening for their local population as part of their public health responsibilities, funded by the Public Health Grant. The Department publishes annual reports on local authority public health spending.

The following table shows the spend on sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment via the Public Health Grant, including chlamydia, between 2015/16 and 2021/22:

Financial Year

STI testing and treatment (cash prices), £

STI testing and treatment (real prices), £

2015/16

369,375

447,950

2016/17

374,241

443,755

2017/18

363,757

424,672

2018/19

339,111

387,724

2019/20

324,400

362,349

2020/21

308,204

326,477

2021/22

326,564

348,785

Source: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities


Written Question
Sick Leave
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people are prevented from working due to (a) illness and (b) injury and are also on an NHS waiting list.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The data is not held in the format requested, as waiting list data does not capture whether someone is unable to work due to their condition.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) plans to link National Health Service waiting times data to other data sources to analyse the relationship between waiting time duration and labour market outcomes in England. Due to dependencies and unknowns, ONS are not able to confirm when the analysis will be available.