Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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) NHS Trusts and (b) Integrated Care Boards on commissioning duties for radiotherapy treatment services in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not had any direct discussions with NHS trusts or integrated care boards (ICBs) on the delegation of commissioning duties for radiotherapy treatment services from NHS England to ICBs across the Enfield North constituency.
NHS England’s National Moderation Panel will determine how many ICBs will take on responsibility for specialised commissioning in October 2023. Following this moderation process, recommendations will be taken to the NHS England Board for final decisions in December 2023, before new arrangements go live from April 2024.
This process will consider the delegation of radiotherapy commissioning for ICBs across England including across the Enfield North constituency.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 tackle disparities in health outcomes for women in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Women’s Health Strategy sets out how the Government is tackling disparities in health outcomes for women across England. Achievements since the launch of the strategy include appointing the first Women’s Health Ambassador for England; investing £25 million funding in the expansion of women’s health hubs to improve women’s access to services and to create efficiencies for the National Health Service; reducing the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) through the launch of the HRT prescription pre-payment certificate; and creating a women’s health area on NHS.uk to bring together women’s health content and create a first port of call for women seeking information.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services that meet the health needs of their local population.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 issued guidance on the use of out-of-date cancer treatment machinery to NHS bodies in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has not issued guidance on the use of out-of-date cancer treatment machinery as it is the responsibility of National Health Service systems to follow guidance from NHS England.
Recent Capital Planning Guidance from NHS England sets out the expectation that most radiotherapy equipment, particularly LINAC machines, will need to be replaced at ten years of age, to make progress on Long Term Plan priorities. The guidance states that integrated care systems need to develop replacement plans as part of their multi-year capital plans, in partnership with specialised commissioners, Cancer Alliances and Radiotherapy Operational Delivery Networks, based on an assessment of equipment age, capacity and demand, opportunities to improve access, and service risk.
At the 2021 Spending Review, £12.6 billion was awarded for NHS Operational Capital for 2022/23 to 2024/25. This accounts for the need to replace diagnostic and other equipment, and the need for NHS trusts to provide for replacements is recognised in the NHS Planning Guidance.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the percentage uptake of Healthy Start Scheme vouchers is as of 12 September 2023 in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly uptake figures for the Healthy Start scheme are available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
The latest uptake figures were published on 31 August 2023. In August 2023, uptake for the London Borough of Enfield was 58% and uptake for London was 60%. Constituency level uptake data is not held by NHSBSA.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 a recent estimate of the number of patients waiting for podiatry care in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held at constituency level. The data does not provide information on current waiting times but shows the number of people who are on the waiting list at a specific point in time.
Enfield North is covered by the North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB). Across that ICB area, there were 2,540 people on the community health services waiting list for adult podiatry and podiatric surgery in July 2023.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) funding and (b) amount of research undertaken on pregnancy.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Since 2018, approximately £68 million has been invested into research on pregnancy across NIHR’s research programmes. No assessment of the adequacy has been made and it is not usual practice for the NIHR to ringfence funds for particular topics or conditions. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pregnancy.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Major Conditions Strategy: case for change and our strategic framework, published by his Department on 21 August 2023, what recent estimate his Department has made of the cost of implementing the framework.
Answered by Will Quince
Funding for the development of the Strategy will come out of the Department’s existing funding allocation. This funding is not separately identified.
The funding provided at the Autumn Statement comes on top of the 2021 Spending Review Settlement, which provided a 33% total cash increase of £43.9 billion when compared to 2019/20, when our budget outturn was £133.5 billion.
As part of the Strategy, we will identifying innovative actions to help alleviate pressure on the National Health Service, such as maximising use of new technologies to screen individuals for conditions.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 dementia diagnosis rate in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Timely diagnosis of dementia is vital to ensure that a person with dementia in any local area can access the advice, information, care and support that can help them to live well with the condition and remain independent for as long as possible.
This commitment is included in the NHS priorities and operational planning guidance for 2023/24, providing a clear direction for ICBs to support delivery of timely diagnosis locally.
The estimated diagnosis rate in NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board in July 2023 was 67.9%, which was higher than both the national ambition (66.7%) and the national dementia diagnosis rate for the same month (63.8%).
NHS England is taking several actions to improve diagnosis rates. In 2021/22, the Government allocated £17 million to the National Health Service to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. NHS England will share learning on good practice with dementia clinical networks by the end of September 2023.
To address regional variation in dementia diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has been commissioned by NHS England to develop a resource to support investigation of the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level to enhance diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 rate of stillbirths in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) data releases, the stillbirth rate was 4.1 per 1,000 total births in 2021 and 3.9 per 1,000 total births in 2022 for England and Wales.
Based on ONS data releases, the preterm birth rate for 2021 was 7.7 per 100 total births. The Department does not hold an estimate of the preterm birth rate for 2022.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 rate of preterm births in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) data releases, the stillbirth rate was 4.1 per 1,000 total births in 2021 and 3.9 per 1,000 total births in 2022 for England and Wales.
Based on ONS data releases, the preterm birth rate for 2021 was 7.7 per 100 total births. The Department does not hold an estimate of the preterm birth rate for 2022.