Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to increase (a) early diagnosis and (b) effective treatment of (i) Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome and (ii) Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections; and what steps his Department are taking to increase awareness of these conditions among medical professionals.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has no plans to do so at present.
Should the evidence base develop further, clinical policy may be updated by relevant organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NHS England would then consider the development of care pathways for those living with paediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome and paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections. In the meantime, integrated care systems are responsible for planning care for their populations.
Medical professionals, such as general practitioners, are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the retention rate of GPs.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are working with NHS England to increase the general practice (GP) workforce in England. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave, and encourage them to return to practice.
NHS England has made a number of recruitment and retention schemes available to boost the GP workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.
As announced in the 2023 Spring Budget, we are also increasing the annual allowance from £40,000 to £60,000 per year to encourage GPs to work more hours, and we are abolishing the lifetime allowance entirely so pension tax charges do not act as a driver for early retirements.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
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 GP practices invest in new IT systems.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The General Practice Forward View, published in 2016, set out our ambition to increase digital use and investment in general practices (GPs), and is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/general-practice-forward-view-gpfv/
This was followed by the NHS Long Term Plan and A Plan for Digital Health and Social Care, which both include actions to drive digital and technology transformation in GPs to deliver efficient services and improve patient care and access.
NHS England ensures that modern, integrated, secure and user-friendly digital systems are available through the GP IT Operating Model, the Digital Care Services catalogue and the GP IT Futures frameworks. This work supports ongoing improvements to procurement processes, a greater choice of nationally accredited digital suppliers and products that meet core standards, requirements and capabilities to ensure GP IT systems continually evolve and advance with minimal impact and disruption to care.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
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 unnecessary administrative tasks required of GPs.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
As part of the 2020/21 general practice (GP) contract, to reduce administrative tasks and to help maximise the time available for care, the Government committed to a thorough review of levels of bureaucracy in GPs. As part of this work, in August 2022, a cross-Government concordat was published agreeing to seven co-designed principles to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy in GPs. The Department is continuing to work across Government and with the National Health Service to implement the solutions that emerge.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Spring Budget 2023, HC1183, published on 15 March 2023, if he will publish a timetable for the digitisation of the NHS Health Check.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Digital NHS Health Check will be an innovative national tool that aims to increase participation in the cardiovascular disease prevention service. The Department is in the process of procuring the Alpha Phase of the Digital NHS Health Check which will focus on testing different ideas and solutions, such as the approach to biometric testing, how to invite eligible individuals and feed results back. We are working towards a live version of the digital health check being available in Spring 2024.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
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 waiting lists for autism assessments in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We expect integrated care boards to have due regard to relevant best practice guidelines when commissioning services, including for autism assessments. The waiting time standard recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is for a maximum waiting time of 13 weeks between a referral for an autism assessment and a first appointment.
NHS England are developing a national framework to set out the process of how children, young people and adults might receive a diagnostic assessment of autism. The aim of this work is to improve access to and the quality of these diagnostic processes and reduce waiting times. The framework will be published in due course.
Building on the 2021/22 investment of £13 million, through the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Mental Health Recovery Plan, we are investing £2.5 million in 2022/23 to support local areas with improvements in autism assessment pathways.
We are also investing £600,000 into expanding an autism early identification pilot to at least a hundred schools in the Bradford area over five years. This programme will help with the early identification of neurodivergent children.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
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 dental training places in (a) England and (b) East of England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government trains around 800 dentists per year but the cap on dental school places was temporarily lifted for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and in 2021 and who had an offer from a university in England to study dentistry, subject to their grades. As a result, 895 dental students entered training in 2020 and 980 dental students entered training in 2021 helping ensure a larger potential pipeline for dentists in coming years, including in the East of England
The Government funded extra 19 dental specialty posts in 2022/23. Additional Dental Specialty Training posts are being targeted to high needs specialties and geographies to seek to improve dental training distribution, including in the East of England.
The Government has committed to publishing a workforce plan this year and this will include independently verified projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed in 5-, 10- and 15-years’ time, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. The workforce plan is for the whole of the NHS workforce, including dental care professionals.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
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 dentists with NHS activity in the Humber and North Yorkshire integrated care board.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in the Humber and North Yorkshire. These will increase access to National Health Service dentistry by adults and children, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.
We have taken action to implement these changes, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place in 2023.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
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 NHS dental practices accepting new (a) child and (b) adult patients.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in the Humber and North Yorkshire. These will increase access to National Health Service dentistry by adults and children, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.
We have taken action to implement these changes, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place in 2023.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to support the General Dental Council reduce the backlog in applicants waiting to sit the Overseas Registration Examination.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The capacity of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) is constrained by rules within the General Dental Council’s (GDC) legislative framework which includes prescriptive detail on the ORE content and structure. The department has worked with the GDC to develop and consult on legislative proposals to allow the regulator greater flexibility to amend its existing international registration processes and explore alternative registration pathways as it considers appropriate. It will be for the GDC, as an independent regulator, to decide how best to use the flexibility that these proposals allow but we understand that the GDC will consult on changes to how it operates the ORE. This would enable it to increase the number of dentists it can assess, potentially allowing overseas dentists to join its register more quickly.
The draft Order was debated in the House of Commons on 6 December 2022 and the House of Lords on 9 January 2023. Subject to the completion of the Parliamentary approvals process, we aim to introduce the legislative changes in February 2023.