Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many deaths involving (a) nitazenes and (b) fentanyls have been confirmed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in 2024 as of 25 April.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are actively monitoring, and responding to, the continued threat posed by the growing levels of potent synthetic opioids in the United Kingdom. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities receives intelligence via its networks on reported deaths from drug misuse, including those that involve nitazenes or fentanyls. There have been 14 deaths confirmed to have involved nitazenes, and no deaths confirmed to have involved fentanyls in England in 2024, as of 25 April.
Statistics on the annual number of deaths related to drug poisoning, including those involving synthetic opioids, are reported by the Office for National Statistics, and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have been waiting more than 12 months for (a) knee and (b) hip replacement surgery in the North East as of 29 April 2024.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to help prepare for potential increases in levels of synthetic opioid-related harms.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are highly alert to the emerging threat from the arrival of potent synthetic opioids in the United Kingdom. The Department is an active member of the cross-Government synthetic opioids taskforce, which was established in the Summer of 2023, to develop mitigations to the synthetic opioids threat.
In July 2023, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities issued a National Patient Safety Alert, which promoted awareness and provided clear instructions for staff in health settings across the country, to ensure they are prepared for anyone that may present with an overdose caused by synthetic opioids.
We are developing an early warning system to improve drug surveillance on synthetic opioids, and are also expanding access to naloxone, a lifesaving medicine that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, so that more professionals and services can give out take-home supplies.
We are engaging on this issue internationally via the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and are playing an active role in the United States-convened Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to place opioid-overdose reversal Naloxone alongside existing public access defibrillators.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the medication reimbursement mechanism for community pharmacists.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the medicine margin survey, the Department assesses whether the reimbursement arrangements pay pharmacy contractors as agreed as part of the community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF). The medicine margin survey considers what pharmacies paid for medicines by looking at their invoices compared to the amount reimbursed by the National Health Service. Where the survey finds that they have been underpaid, we increase the pharmacy contractors’ payments, and where they have been overpaid, we decrease payments.
Furthermore, where pharmacies cannot purchase products at or below the Drug Tariff NHS reimbursement price, Community Pharmacy England can request that the Department reassesses the reimbursement price. If a new reimbursement price is issued, this is known as a concessionary price.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 pharmacies that have closed in Easington since 2019; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of these closures on primary care services.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There were 21 physical pharmacies on 31 December 2023 in Easington constituency. Between 31 December 2019 and 31 December 2023, two pharmacies closed in Easington constituency. However, access remains good. 85 percent of the population in Easington live within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy. This exceeds the national average of 80 percent. Residents of Easington can also access services from distance selling pharmacies that operate nationally.
It is the statutory duty of local authorities in England to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas, every three years, to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. Integrated care boards have regard to those assessments when commissioning services and where a pharmacy closure impacts on the access to services, a new contractor can apply to open a pharmacy in the area.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the closure of community pharmacies on the communities.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There were 21 physical pharmacies on 31 December 2023 in Easington constituency. Between 31 December 2019 and 31 December 2023, two pharmacies closed in Easington constituency. However, access remains good. 85 percent of the population in Easington live within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy. This exceeds the national average of 80 percent. Residents of Easington can also access services from distance selling pharmacies that operate nationally.
It is the statutory duty of local authorities in England to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas, every three years, to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. Integrated care boards have regard to those assessments when commissioning services and where a pharmacy closure impacts on the access to services, a new contractor can apply to open a pharmacy in the area.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 29 February 2024 to Question 15620 on Health Services: Postal Services, whether his Department collects information on the reasons for missed NHS appointments.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Rates of missed appointments, and their causes, can vary substantially between providers and local areas. NHS England has developed a range of resources to support trusts in understanding the causes of missed appointments within their organisation, and to take effective action to reduce Did Not Attend rates.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of the cost of training a student midwife is paid by (a) the student, (b) the public purse and (c) other sources; and what the cost to the public purse was for training student midwives in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Student loan outlay and Office for Students Strategic Priorities Grant data is not collected by the Department of Health and Social Care, and is the responsibility of the Department for Education and the Office for Students. NHS England supports the provision of clinical placements for student midwives, through the Education and Training Tariff, which is paid to placement providers. The following table shows the tariff provided for midwifery students in each of the last five years:
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Tariff | £11,336,867 | £13,856,454 | £17,428,079 | £21,234,754 | £23,104,117 |
From 2017 all eligible midwifery students have received non-repayable supplementary funding support through the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF), which since 2020 has included a non-repayable training grant of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available to students for childcare, dual accommodation costs, and travel. Prior to 2017, healthcare education funding for midwifery students was centrally funded by the Government. This included payment of tuition fees and an NHS Bursary. The following table shows all support paid to students undertaking education and training which would enable them to register as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, in each of the last five years:
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
LSF and legacy bursary | £15,800,691 | £9,436,016 | £31,225,575 | £49,035,130 | £53,841,543 |
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people enrolled onto midwifery (a) undergraduate and (b) postgraduate courses in each year of study in each of the last five academic years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data published by the Office for Students in the Higher Education Students Early Statistics Survey (HESES), collates figures submitted by individual higher education providers to give an indication of the number of students studying in each academic year. HESES data includes figures on undergraduate and postgraduate midwifery courses in England. The latest published data is for those starting courses in 2022. The table below gives the number of undergraduate and postgraduate starters on midwifery courses in England, each year from 2018 to 2022:
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Undergraduate Starters | 2,550 | 2,930 | 3,460 | 3,565 | 3,305 |
Postgraduate Starters | 70 | 55 | 100 | 135 | 190 |
Source: The Higher Education Students Early Statistics Survey (HESES) 2018 to 2022.
The table below presents the latest available data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for the number of qualifiers from undergraduate midwifery courses in England, for the years 2019/20 to 2021/22:
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Undergraduate Midwifery Qualifiers | 2,055 | 1,945 | 2,445 |
Source: The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) qualifier data 2022
Note: A qualifier is defined by the HESA as a student who gained a qualification during the academic year in question.
The Department does not hold information on the proportion of student midwives who left university courses, in each of the last five years.