Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
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 factors that contribute to people being unable to access NHS dentists in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to National Health Service dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
There are no perfect payment systems and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system, so that we deliver a system better for patients and the profession.
We are continuing to meet with the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to discuss how we can best deliver our shared ambition to improve access for NHS dental patients. We want to ensure that any reform takes into account the views of dentists across England, including in Greater Manchester.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton 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 improve mental health services for (a) young men, (b) young women and (c) vulnerable people in Heywood and Middleton North constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that waits for children and young people's mental health services are lengthy and that some vulnerable groups are less likely to access support. That is why the National Health Service’s planning guidance for 2025/26 makes it clear that one of the priorities for children's mental health services is to reduce local inequalities in access to children and young people’s mental health services between disadvantaged groups, including in Heywood and Middleton North constituency, and the wider population.
The Government will also recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across child and adult mental health services and provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school through expanding Mental Health Support Teams, so that every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
Early intervention and prevention support in the community is vital. That is why we are providing £7 million of funding to extend support for 24 early support hubs that have a
track record of helping thousands of young people in their community.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
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 (a) midwives and (b) maternity units across Greater Manchester have up-to-date equipment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for local funding decisions, including on equipment, ultimately rests with the appropriate National Health Service commissioner. To ensure midwives and maternity units across Greater Manchester have up-to-date equipment, the following steps are being taken locally:
- maternity units are required to maintain an equipment maintenance register and to implement a rolling program for the renewal and purchase of equipment; and
- midwives are required to adhere to provider policies that mandate checking equipment for suitability and that it is in good working order before use.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
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 adequacy of hospital bed availability in health trusts in the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hospital bed occupancy, including in Manchester, is too high. This reduces the number of beds available for patients who require hospital admission.
Greater Manchester Integrated Care System continues to take action to support bed occupancy including a concentrated focus on the implementation of strategies and services aimed at preventing unnecessary hospital admissions, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton 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 increase the number of midwives.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan which will deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, to ensure that the National Health Service has the right people, including midwives, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.
Targeted retention work for midwives is being undertaken by NHS England, led by the Chief Nursing Officer. This work contains a range of measures, including the creation of a midwifery and nursing retention self-assessment tool, mentoring schemes, strengthened advice and support on pensions, and embedding flexible retirement options. NHS England has also invested in unit-based retention leads which, alongside investment in workforce capacity, has seen a reduction in vacancy, leaver, and turnover rates. NHS England is also boosting the midwifery workforce through undergraduate training, apprenticeships, postgraduate conversion, and return to midwifery programmes.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
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 pressures on (a) community health and (b) primary care settings within the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community health services are an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service. The Department and NHS England are committed to reducing pressures on community health services, which includes reducing long waits and improving timely access to these services.
NHS Greater Manchester has invested £2 million to support Primary Care Winter Schemes for Greater Manchester, and this funding is delivering additional general practice (GP) appointments, meaning that primary care services have the capacity to be able to respond to surges in demand for primary care access.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that potential reform of the national contract for dentists considers the views of dentists practicing in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to National Health Service dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
There are no perfect payment systems and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system, so that we deliver a system better for patients and the profession.
We are continuing to meet with the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to discuss how we can best deliver our shared ambition to improve access for NHS dental patients. We want to ensure that any reform takes into account the views of dentists across England, including in Greater Manchester.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
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 the handling of complaints regarding private hospice care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England and, therefore, covers the palliative and end of life care sector, including independent hospices. The CQC registers health and adult care providers, monitors and inspects services to see whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led, and publishes their findings, including quality ratings.
The CQC can use its legal powers to take action where poor care is identified, and can publish regional and national reviews of the major quality issues in health and social care, including palliative and end of life care, encouraging improvement by highlighting good practice. A complaint regarding hospice care can also be made to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/making-complaint
The majority of independent hospices receive some funding from their local integrated care board (ICB). If a hospice does receive funding via that route, a complaint can be raised with the local ICB via the following link:
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to increase the number of adults that have visited a dentist in Rochdale Borough in the last two years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Rochdale Borough, this is the NHS Greater Manchester ICB.
ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
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 the number of adults that visit a dentist in Rochdale Borough, compared to the last two years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Rochdale Borough, this is the NHS Greater Manchester ICB.
ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.