Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the (a) Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) NHS England on increasing funding for the clinical (i) radiology and (ii) oncology workforces.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues and NHS England on a variety of matters pertaining to health and social care.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on reviewing funding for specialty training posts and incentivising NHS trusts to take on new trainees.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues and NHS England on a variety of matters pertaining to health and social care.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to commission a review into streamlining the Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration process.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
On 14 December 2022 a statutory instrument was laid which amends the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Order of Council 2010 and The General Medical Council (Applications for General Practice and Specialist Registration) Regulations 2010 to provide the General Medical Council (GMC) with the freedom to develop additional registration pathways for GP and specialist registration.
These changes do not amend the GMC’s Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) process but provide it with broader registration criteria and flexibility to expand the range of evidence that it can accept from applicants. The Order has a commencement date of 30 November 2023. There are no further plans for the Department to review the CESR process.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to increase funding for the clinical (a) radiology and (b) oncology workforce.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The work of the Long Term Workforce Plan will be used to inform future Government work on how to best meet the needs of patients and the National Health Service workforce. The Plan is for the whole of the NHS workforce, including cancer services; however, it will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 trained interventional radiologists in the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of October 2022, there were 1,588 full-time equivalent doctors in training in the clinical radiology specialty in the National Health Service in England. This is an increase of 252, 18.9%, since 2019.
The Government funded an additional 20 Specialty Training year six (ST6) places for interventional radiologists in 2021/22 and 2022/23. These increases in the overall radiology workforce will increase the number of radiologists who can train to deliver interventional radiology and expand national capacity for the paediatric interventional radiology workforce.
To support the workforce as a whole, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. The Plan is for the whole of the NHS workforce, it will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 the impact of unequal access to paediatric interventional radiology services on (a) survival rates and (b) life-long health complications for children eligible for this care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Surgery in Children Clinical Reference Group (CRG) provides clinical leadership and advice to NHS England and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Group, including on paediatric imaging and interventional radiology. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Programme of Care, the CRG and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) have had to prioritise surgery restoration and recovery, however, the issues linked to the concerns raised about access to interventional radiology are to be presented to the Women and Children’s Programme of Care on the 28 June 2023 and will also be presented to ODNs to incorporate into their respective network work programmes during 2023/24.
Equal access will also be the subject of discussions between NHS England and the Department.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 implications for his policies of The Royal College of Radiologists’ findings that there are (a) 12 consultant paediatric interventional radiology posts in the UK and (b) five paediatric interventional radiology posts based outside London; and if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the number of those posts.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department will be discussing the geographic spread of posts with NHS England.
I have agreed to meet the Royal College of Radiologists so this matter will also be discussed in a meeting with them.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 implications for his policies of the number of of paediatric interventional radiologists employed per million children in the (a) NHS and (b) US.
Answered by Will Quince
The Surgery in Children Clinical Reference Group (CRG) provides clinical leadership and advice to NHS England and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Group, including on paediatric imaging and interventional radiology. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Programme of Care, the CRG and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) have had to prioritise surgery restoration and recovery, however, the issues linked to the concerns raised about access to interventional radiology are to be presented to the Women and Children’s Programme of Care on the 28 June 2023 and will also be presented to ODNs to incorporate into their respective network work programmes during 2023/24.
The number of paediatric interventional radiologists will also be the subject of discussions between NHS England and the Department.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken steps to (a) increase access to paediatric interventional radiology services and (b) ensure that every hospital has a strategy for dealing with out-of-hours emergencies requiring those services since 2010.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Surgery in Children Clinical Reference Group (CRG) provides clinical leadership and advice to NHS England and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Group, including on paediatric imaging and interventional radiology. Since the COVID-19 pandemic surgery restoration and recovery have been prioritised, however, the issues linked to access to interventional radiology are to be presented to the Women and Children’s Programme of Care on the 28 June 2023 and will also be presented to Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Networks to incorporate into their respective work programmes during 2023/24.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the timescales for businesses to prepare for the implementation of the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The government published the draft Border Target Operating Model in April. This sets out plans to introduce security and biosecurity controls from 31 October in a way which implements critical protections at the UK border, while ensuring these new controls are as simple as possible for businesses to comply with.
The relevant business stakeholders informed us before publication that they will need time to prepare for these changes, and our phased approach to implementation is designed to give them this time.
We are working closely with businesses to get this right - the current period of engagement helps us to gather views on our draft proposals from businesses in the UK and overseas, to explore the costs of implementing the new model, and to ensure importing is as smooth as possible where checks are needed.
The cost of preparing for regulatory change will vary from business to business, however the Government is working closely with businesses to help them understand what they need to do.
We are also using the engagement period to ensure that UK and international businesses and their supply chains are aware of and understand the new requirements and are ready for these changes.
We will publish a final version of the Border Target Operating Model, providing further detail where needed, in the summer.