Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Defence on increasing the number of medical reservists joining the Armed Forces.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People working in the National Health Service have many transferable skills that can be of great benefit to the Armed Forces reserve, whether they be clinicians, such as doctors and nurses, or staff working in leadership or management roles. There have been no recent ministerial discussions on this issue. However, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Defence are working with NHS Employers to ensure that NHS organisations are supportive and flexible when it comes to people joining the Armed Forces reserve, and to enable individuals to train and deploy when needed.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage of nursing posts are currently being filled by Bank Nurses in each Acute Hospital in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
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 required domestic capacity for vaccine production in the event of a pandemic.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
As we saw in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that the United Kingdom’s population has ready access to pandemic vaccines as soon as they are available is critical to our ability to respond to and recover from any future pandemic. Whilst it is not possible to predict the cause of a pandemic in advance, the Government is investing in a range of capabilities to support the development and manufacture of pandemic vaccines when needed. These capabilities include:
¾ an advance purchase agreement with CSL Seqirus, which guarantees the UK’s population access to over 100 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine, entirely manufactured in the UK; and
¾ a partnership with Moderna, which aims to bring mRNA vaccine production capability to the UK and build resilience in the event of a new health emergency by investing in mRNA research and development.
In addition to these specific contractual arrangements, the Government is committed to making the UK one of the best places in the world to develop and manufacture new and innovative medicines, including vaccines. This is underpinned by broader support for the life sciences sector, including through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, which is a capital grant fund of up to £520 million over five years, from 2025 to 2030, to support UK health resilience and help ensure a robust response to potential future health emergencies.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many vaccine doses have been purchased for this year’s Flu campaign; and where they were sourced from.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Information on the number of doses procured by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is commercially sensitive.
The UKHSA secures sufficient volumes of flu vaccines for the children’s flu programme, to ensure that eligible children aged less than 18 years old who present for vaccination can be offered an appropriate vaccine. General practitioners and community pharmacists are directly responsible for ordering flu vaccines from suppliers, which are used to deliver the national flu programme to all other eligible groups.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
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 21 January 2025 to Question 24413 on Cardiovascular System: Health Services, for what reason his Department does not hold a breakdown of the data on vascular services for Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no patients coded as waiting on the Referral to Treatment waiting list at the Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for Vascular Surgery Service. This may be because the vascular service is being coded under a different treatment function, such as under general surgery service which would likely contain data for other services, as well as vascular. As such, the Department does not hold centrally any further breakdown of the data for the waiting time for a first appointment with vascular services at this trust.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many agency nurses were employed in each acute hospital trust in the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board area in each year since 2019; and what proportion of all nurses they were.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS clinical staff were armed forces reservists in each year since 2010.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not collected nationally. NHS Employers is working with National Health Service organisations to support them in being flexible and supportive employers, so that they can enable their staff to participate in the Armed Forces reserve, and train and deploy when required.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
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 average waiting times for a first appointment following a routine referral to vascular services at (a) Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and (b) Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The mean average waiting time from referral to the first outpatient appointment for patients under vascular services at the Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is 78 days. For the Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, a breakdown of the data on vascular services is not currently held by the Department.
The Elective Reform Plan outlines our commitments on reforming outpatient care to reduce waiting times for first and subsequent appointments. These include improving the NHS App and the Manage Your Referral Website to give patients more control over their outpatient care, increasing Advice and Guidance to ensure that patient care takes place in the right setting, and reducing missed appointments and less clinically valuable follow ups. These reforms will help to free up clinicians’ time and reduce waiting times for those patients who most need care, including first appointments and clinically necessary follow ups. Outpatient transformation will help fulfil the Government’s commitment that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
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 average waiting times in Accident and Emergency for each Acute Hospital Trust in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on accident and emergency performance is published monthly by NHS England. The headline metric used is the four-hour accident and emergency waiting time standard. This data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
Provisional data is published on median average waiting times in emergency departments by National Health Service provider. This data is available at the following link:
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the bed occupancy rate is in each Acute Hospital Trust in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Bed occupancy rates for each National Health Service trust are published monthly by NHS England. The latest data is for December 2024, and is available at the following link: