Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
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 help increase awareness to ensure that women with the NF1 gene undergo the breast cancer screening to which they are entitled.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an inherited condition that causes cancerous and non-cancerous tumours to grow along the nerves. It affects everyone in a different way. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance does not address NF1 specifically but does state that people with certain genetic conditions should be referred to a geneticist to consider their risk, and that people aged between 40 and 50 years old may qualify for annual scans of their breasts.
An individual’s risk of breast cancer is based on a number of factors. These factors may vary throughout a lifetime which is why individuals are advised to seek advice from their health professionals. Most individuals with NF1 would be considered at moderate risk of breast cancer, which would mean they should be referred for annual scans by the clinician leading their care. This is not part of the breast cancer screening programme, but is the responsibility of local services to organise and commission.
There are a range of different sources of information for patients including the Childhood Tumour Trust and Nerve Tumours UK website. Nerve Tumours UK also includes guidance to general practitioners and have specialist nurse advisors across England. Information for individuals with NF1 is also provided on the NHS website at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/neurofibromatosis-type-1
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
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 GP services in coastal communities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through our 10-Year Health Plan, it will be easier and faster to see a general practitioner (GP). We will end the 8:00am scramble for appointments, train more doctors, and will guarantee a consultation within 24 hours for those who need one. It is important that funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country, which is why we have committed to reviewing the GP funding formula to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.
We have also delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an almost £1.1 billion uplift, the biggest increase in GP funding in over a decade, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources.
In October 2024, we invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support the recruitment of 2,000 individual GPs into primary care networks across England, helping to increase appointment availability and improve care for thousands of patients. The new £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will create additional clinical space within over 1,000 practices across England. This investment will deliver more appointments and improve patient care.
The Government will bring back the family doctor for those who would benefit from seeing the same clinician regularly. In doing so, we will improve continuity of care, which is associated with better health outcomes and can play an important role in managing health conditions in patients.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
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 NHS (a) treatment for and (b) diagnosis of keratoconus.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are not aware of any issues with the diagnosis or treatment of keratoconus. Keratoconus is usually identified during a routine sight test. The National Health Service provides over 13 million free NHS sight tests annually for eligible groups.
Patient with suspected keratoconus will be referred into the hospital eye service for a definitive diagnosis and any clinically necessary treatment. For mild cases of keratoconus, glasses or a range of contact lenses can be used to correct vision. The introduction of cross-linking treatment, a treatment that uses ultraviolet light and riboflavin eye drops to stiffen the cornea, in early keratoconus, has reduced the number of patients who go on to develop advanced keratoconus, which may require surgery.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
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 tackle shortages of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of ongoing intermittent supply issues with pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) and is continuing to work with all suppliers of PERT to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term. This includes asking that they expedite deliveries, source stock from other markets, and increase production. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes for 2025 for the United Kingdom. The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.
In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers, and if authorised, these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.
The Department has issued management advice to healthcare professionals which directs clinicians to unlicensed imports when licensed stock is unavailable, and which includes actions for integrated care boards to ensure local mitigation plans are implemented. The Department, in collaboration with NHS England, has created a public facing page to include the latest update on PERT availability and easily accessible prescribing advice for clinicians.
The Department will continue to work closely with the manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible, to ensure patients have continuous access to medicines.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
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 4 February 2025 to Question 24568 on Department of Health and Social Care: Media, which Ministers received media training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between 4 July 2022 and 4 July 2024, media training was received by Minister Caroline Johnson MP, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Public Health, and Lord Markham, the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many doctors applied for core anaesthetic training in each of the last five years; and how many training places were available in the same period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of doctors who applied for training in the Core Anaesthetics programme, as well as how many training places were available across the United Kingdom in each of the last five years:
Year | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Applications | 1,479 | 2,046 | 2,337 | 2,604 | 3,522 |
Training places (posts) | 569 | 566 | 558 | 545 | 542 |
Source: Workforce, Training and Education, Competition Ratios, published by NHS England and available at the following link:
https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/competition-ratios
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many doctors applied for medical specialty training in each of the last five years; and how many training places were available in the same period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Doctors undertake two years of foundation training after graduation, which is followed by a choice of core training programmes. Most of those in core training then apply for higher specialty training programmes.
For 2024, there were 4,177 applications across the 25 specialty training programmes that comprise medical specialty training, which came from 2,897 unique applicants due to doctors being able to apply to a number of different specialities when seeking specialty training posts. The number of unique applicants for prior years is not held by the Department.
The attached table shows the number of doctors who applied for training in the 25 individual specialty training programmes that comprise medical specialty training, along with how many training posts were available across the United Kingdom in each speciality, in each of the last five years.
This information is drawn from information published by NHS England on the Competition Ratios for all doctor training specialties each year, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on (a) media and (b) voice training for Ministers between 4 July 2022 and 4 July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department spent a total of £1,500, including VAT, on media training for ministers between 4 July 2022 and 4 July 2024. There was no expenditure on voice training for ministers during this period.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve treatment for people with a glioblastoma brain tumour.
Answered by Wes Streeting - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Like so many Hon. members across the House, I dearly miss the late Baroness McDonagh, who was sadly taken from us by glioblastoma. I’m determined to improve overall survival rates and treatment for rarer cancers like these and I met with officials and leading clinicians on glioblastomas this week to discuss what more we can do.