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 make an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of supplying Naloxone to the NHS.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has responded to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and agrees with recommendations five, six and seven in the report entitled Review of the UK Naloxone Implementation. As part of the Government’s ambition to reduce drug-related deaths, we recognise the benefits of more services and professionals being able to supply naloxone without a prescription. The Department in partnership with the devolved administrations consulted on this issue in 2021. Following this, the Department is working closely with the devolved administrations on options to increase availability of naloxone without a prescription. This includes possible amendments to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to enable more services and professionals to be able to supply take-home naloxone, under powers in the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021. The department will provide a full response to the consultation in due course.
The Department cannot make an estimate of the number and proportion of overdoses that were successfully and unsuccessfully reversed with Naloxone in each year since 2010 as this data is not held centrally. There are currently no plans to make an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of supplying Naloxone to the National Health Service.
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 estimate she has made of the number of people who have been unable to register with an NHS dentist.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients in England are not registered with a dental practice in the National Health Service, although many NHS dental 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 latest NHS Dental Statistics Annual Report published on 24 August 2023 shows that 18.1 million adults were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 months up to 30 June 2023, an increase of 1.7 million or 10% when compared to the previous year; and 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.
The annual GP Patient Survey also includes questions on whether patients have tried to obtain an appointment with an NHS dentist and, if so, whether they had been successful. The latest GP Patient survey data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/category/statistics/gp-dental-statistics/
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, whether his Department has had recent discussions with (a) charities and (b) advocacy groups representing people with eating disorders on its guidance on NHS treatment for those conditions.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have not had any recent discussions with charities or advocacy groups regarding eating disorders.
Ministerial meetings with external stakeholders are published on gov.uk.
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 level of consultation officials in his Department had with their counterparts in the Department for Business and Trade during the negotiation of the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); and whether his Department has made an assessment of the implications for its policies of the findings of Public Health Wales’ report entitled The health, well-being and equity impact of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement on Wales.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Officials across Government work closely to support the negotiation of the United Kingdom’s trade deals, including the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). While the Department has not made a specific assessment of this report, the Government has been clear that protecting the National Health Service is a fundamental principle of our trade policy. During our negotiations to accede to CPTPP our commitment to this did not change; the NHS, its services and the price it pays for medicines were never on the table. CPTPP preserves the right to regulate to protect human, animal and plant life and health. The UK will continue to uphold our high standards in all our trade agreements, including CPTPP. Decisions on these standards remain a matter for the UK and will be made separately from any trade agreements.
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 he will make an assessment of the potential merits of undertaking health impact assessments for future free trade agreement negotiations.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care does not carry out specific health impact assessments for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020 commits the Government to produce a report which examines new FTAs in the context of their impact on domestic statutory protections in the United Kingdom, including the impact on human health. This report must be laid in Parliament as part of the scrutiny process. This process has also been applied to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement.
The “Section 42 report”, as it is known, is led by the Department for Business and Trade, and is drafted in consultation with other Government departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care.
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 NHS dentists are accepting new adult patients that are not entitled to free dental care as of October 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Last year we introduced changes to the 2006 dental contract, which included a requirement that dentists must update the National Health Service website with their availability at least every 90 days, making access clearer for patients.
Latest data from the end of September 2023 showed that, of the practices that had updated within the preceding 90 days, 769 practices reported that they were accepting non-charge exempt adults, which is 13% of a total of approximately 5,915 practices.
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 he will make it his policy to establish a mental health emergency helpline.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to delivering 100% coverage across the country of age-appropriate mental health crisis-care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via NHS111 by April 2024. The Urgent and Emergency Care Services Recovery Plan, published in January 2023, reiterated this commitment and timescale. This will enable anyone experiencing mental health crisis to access assessment and, if appropriate, onward referral and treatment at any time of the day by calling NHS111.
For those with severe needs or in crisis, urgent mental health helplines are already available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in all areas of the country. These crisis lines currently take around 200,000 calls a month. Linking all crisis lines through to NHS111 will provide a consistent route for people to access support across the country.
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 NHS physicians there were per 10,000 people in January (a) 2010 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
As of January 2010, there were 18.1 full time equivalent doctors per 10,000 head of population in England. As of January 2023, there were 23.1 full time equivalent doctors per 10,000 head of population in England.
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 proportion of service level agreements relating to processing (a) safeguarding (i) alerts and (ii) concerns and (b) whistleblowing have been reached at the Care Quality Commission in the last two months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) receives feedback on care through its dedicated digital service, 'Give feedback on care', and its National Customer Service Centre (NCSC). As well as online through the digital service, healthcare staff or members of the public can contact CQC via phone, email or letter.
When CQC receives a safeguarding and/or whistleblowing concern, this is received by the NCSC team who will triage and prioritise the concern for further action.
Highest priority alerts are sent to the relevant local authority for further action, as they have the powers to intervene if necessary.
For the last two months CQC processed 6,219 safeguarding enquiries, including both alerts and concerns and it received and processed 1,888 whistleblowing enquiries.
In July 2023, CQC launched their new digital platform, which has already shown substantial increase in the number of safeguarding enquiries in August.
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 estimate his Department has made of the cost of removing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete from all hospitals.
Answered by Will Quince
Extensive building survey works have been conducted by National Health Service trusts to identify the presence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in their fabric, using technology to record potential issues and visually identify and log potential risks. So far 27 sites with confirmed RAAC plank construction have been identified and RAAC has already been removed completely from three of these. There is ongoing engagement with trusts on a national and regional level to ensure RAAC is being fully identified across the NHS estate.
We have allocated a total of £698 million for mitigation works, which involves putting in place necessary remediation and failsafe measures, in all the affected trusts up to 2025. Funding is being allocated annually, based on NHS trust plans and delivery progress. Further, the seven worst affected hospitals are being rebuilt by 2030 through the New Hospital Programme.
We have committed to eradicating RAAC from the publicly owned NHS estate by 2035, protecting patient and staff safety in the interim period, with NHS approaching this on a ‘risk basis’ and prioritising NHS trusts of concern. The estimated cost of full eradication through to 2035 will change over time due to several factors and will be considered at each spending review.